An Inner Logic
by syrraki
Summary: Late night adventures, mattress tennis, matchmaking and Ginny Weasley. Welcome to the new life of Draco Malfoy.
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone. Thanks so much for the people who reviewed the last chapter. 'Twas sad to see it go. But hey, here's the sequel! Or the Prequel to the Sequel. Or just a slightly shorter first chapter. To open the story.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the gummy bears in my mouth.

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"So how long is this going to go on for?"

The question came out of no where. We hadn't even been talking, just sitting and enjoying the ambience of the Slytherin common room. Was it a joke that ever since I'd given up sitting there and being haughty, I'd started enjoying the few periods of time that I spent in it?

Pansy and Blaise were entwined on the couch, her back against his chest, arms around each other, while I was sprawled (artfully) in a leather armchair, resting after an outing with Ginny. I was just musing about how much of a couple they were, Pansy and Blaise. I'd never noticed it before, they just seemed like friends with benefits, but over the past few months they seemed to have grown closer. Heck, they actually had conversations, instead of simply arguing and making up, as had previously been the case. I wondered when it had happened, and why I hadn't noticed, but then I let the issue drop, chalking it up to the fact that we were all growing up and changing, hopefully for the better.

I didn't have to ask what Blaise wanted to know, it was obvious from the tone in his voice; would be casual but with an edge, but I decided to anyway, I didn't want them to think that the only thing ever on my mind was Ginny.

"I'll bite, how long is what going to go on for?" Blaise raised his eyebrows at me while Pansy stopped looking at her hair in her compact and glanced at the two of us instead. Pansy had become quite cosy with Luna Lovegood of all people, it turned out that despite being two strawberries short of a cheese cake, she had pretty good fashion sense. I personally think it's because she didn't mind listening to Pansy's constant social commentry that even Daphne had been known to zone out of.

"This whole thing with Ginny, the being nice to her friends and hanging out with Gryffindors."

I was glad to see that he didn't say it with malice, but real curious. This was something I'd anticipated, they didn't realise that I wasn't going to get bored and return to our haughty ways. Although I doubt that they would relish changing back, it was familiar, so they felt drawn to it.

"Indefinitely," I said, settling on a way of saying that this wasn't a fling, without sounding defensive.

"So you're not going to change back, back to how it was?" Asked Pansy, her compact stashed away now.

"No."

"Good."

I glanced at her in confusion, to see she was settling back down into Blaise, having previously propped herself up on one arm to see me better.

"You two..." I trailed off, and Blaise finished the sentence for me.

"Are happy about that."

"We like it like this Draco. I mean, we could do with less of Potter and his lot," said Pansy, wrinkling her nose in a gesture that reminded me instantly of Ginny, despite Pansy having done it for years. I wondered when Ginny had stolen that trait and made it her own. "But it's fun, more fun that before. It's not like we'd have anything to go back to. Sitting in the common room all day isn't my idea of high living."

I continued looked non plussed. I had thought there would be an argument, assumed that they'd attack Ginny and the Gryffindorks, or at least say they'd have no further part in it, but there were backing me up, they agreed with me, they were happy with this new life for us, even if it was so different to the one we'd been accustomed to. The change had crept up on us, catalysed of course by Ginny, but even without her I found it hard to believe that we would still be sitting around the common room, torturing Hufflepuffs in our free periods and wishing school to end so that we could sign up to be junior death eaters. I mean, where was the point? Granted, we still outclassed the majority of the school and had every right to sit around looking haughty, but there were simply better things to be doing. Like homework on the ceiling, or human pinball, or at the very least having a party on the roof. In fact, given our new activities, parties on the roof seemed positively mundane. Strange, how one's life could change without even noticing.

"You didn't think we'd have stuck it out this long if we didn't like it did you? Honestly Draco, we're good friends, but we're not that good. Ginny's cool. And she's a good influence on you."

"What are you on about? The girl's insane," I said.

"She's got an inner logic. Non-linear, but it's logic at that." I opened my mouth to argue, but Blaise interrupted me.

"You know that it's not that simple though," said Blaise. "They'll be consequences, I don't mean some of the Slytherin third years giving you cheek, I mean your parents, maybe even the Dark Lord. He probably still thinks you're going to be signing up as soon as you leave school."

"Be easier for everyone if Scarhead would just kill him and get it over with," murmured Pansy.

"Your father wont take kindly to this, a lot of students in this school are going to make trouble for you, and Ginny'll have to deal with a lot too," Blaise continued, ignoring his girlfriend who sighed theatrically.

"We'll deal, together. I've known for years that I would never join the Dark Lord, I don't give a flying fuck what anyone besides you two, Daphne and Ginny think. Ginny and I'll be fine."

"And we'll stand by you," said Pansy, smiling at me, one side of her mouth twisted up.

"Bring it on."

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And that's the end of the first chaptery...bit. Lemme know what you think, what you want to see, where I should sit, etc. Reviews please! If you read it, you should review. Otherwise it's like stealing. And I know there are people who aren't reviewing! Because you put the story on story alert and yet you continue to not review! this is fiendish behaviour. You should cease at once. Cease by..reviewing! 


	2. Draco Should Have Known

Hello all. You can thank Valentine's Riddle for this chapter. Thank you all so much for your reviews. They really really made my day, and helped with my writing today. I'm trying, every time I get a review to go to the reviewer's page and read a few of your stories. That way, I feel like we're all friends! And then I review you, and it's a nice circle of happy reviewing.

Here we go, my favourite chapter so far!

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A walk by the lake, she said.

Just a walk, nice thing to do at 2AM. 

Water'll be warm, she said.

I should have known.

We'd been out at night before of course, several times in the last few months. Ginny liked it at night, because it was quieter, less chance of bumping into anyone. I liked it at night because it was riskier, more chance of having to squash together in an alcove to hide.

Generally, when we went out at night it was to plan a morning surprise, be it leaving a pair of tartan slippers for McGonagal, charming the suit of armour outside the Ravenclaw common room to do a jig, or bribing the Fat Lady to make a pass at Snape. (She refused, but did make a pass at Flitwick who seemed quite pleased.)

Tonight however, she suggested a walk. It's my fault, I know. I thought she was loosing her touch, couldn't think of anything better. I actually made a few jokes. Serves me right really.

So I went to bed early, leaving Pansy, Blaise and Daphne using a swelling solution immorally in the common room and was woken up by Ginny at 2AM, sending me a message.

We'd made a new way to contact each other, instead of owls and messages which were a pain, we simply used two notebooks; charmed so that whatever was written in one appeared in the other. When there was a new message, the notebooks vibrated slightly which although not enough to trigger it's presence to anyone that didn't know it was there, was enough to wake either of us up if we left our notebooks under our pillows.

I was getting used to being woken up by my pillow vibrating, it was better than an owl biting me at least. Upon opening the book and staring at the page with bleary eyes, I managed to read the words.

Rise and shine sweetheart, you promised we'd go for a walk. Do NOT close this and go to sleep for "five more minutes" 'cause we both know that making someone wait for an hour and a half is not acceptable. You can get your beauty sleep later Dracoface.

Love you lots like Acid Pops

Ginny

P.S. I mean it, if you don't meet me in ten minutes, I'm coming in to get you.

After reading the message through twice, I yawned hugely and toyed with the idea of letting Ginny come in to get me. Then decided against it. She'd probably bring water bombs.

Through supreme act of will, I managed to roll onto the floor. On purpose. It was a strategic manueveur, because once on the floor as oppose to my feather mattress, I was much more likely to get up. Forcing images of Ginny pelting me with water filled balloons into my mind I sat up. Then fell back down. I hit my head a bit actually. Kinda hurt. Woke me up though. The second time I sat up, I managed to stagger to a standing position and padding off towards the bathroom to take a quick shower.

Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the main entrance, where we'd agreed to meet and found Ginny waltzing with a suit of armour. I say waltzing, it was more of a moon walk really.

"I'm here now, you can let the poor suit of armour get away from you and rust in peace." I chuckled lightly at my own joke.

"But we were just getting it!" Ginny protested. "He really likes dancing, I can tell from-Ouch!" She exclaimed as it (he? who knows?) trod on her foot.

"And on that note, we're leaving," I said, disentangling Ginny and replacing the suit of armour which looked relieved, well, as much as a piece of metal can.

"But I didn't even need that toe," Ginny protested weakly, but walked with me anyway. We had discovered that at this time of night, Snape was generally brewing a potion, Filch was asleep, and McGonagal was enjoying a scotch in her office, leaving the way clear for us.

Outside it was completely dark, with no trace of sun on the horizon. When I'd complained earlier of having to wake at such a god forsaken hour, Ginny informed me that it wouldn't be properly dark at any other hour due to the summer nights, and if we went at a different time of year it would be too cold. Her excuse was pitiful really, but I decided to go to appease her. There was something immensely satisfying about creeping around the school at night.

I could see what Ginny had been talking about when we got out of school. The sky was completely dark, so dark you couldn't see the mountains that bordered the school, and it was a clear night where the stars sparkled brightly and formed patterns above us. There was no moon from what I could see, and it seemed to me like velvet spiked with holes, pressed on a bright light so that only pinpricks shone through.

Ginny and I walked out, careful to close the door behind us so no light spilt out, and made our way down the winding path towards the lake.

"Want to play True or False?" She asked skipping along beside me to keep pace with my significantly longer strides. True or False was one of her favourite games. Along with "What Shape Is That Cloud?" and "What Would You Rather?"

"Sure," I said, feeling a little stifled. Regardless of the late hour, it had been an unseasonally hot day, dragging into a hot, humid night. The collar of my white shirt was sticking to the back of my neck, and I longed for a breeze to give me some reprieve from the heat.

"Professor Trelawney wears day of the week underwear."

"True."

"True! Colin tripped on the edge of her skirt and I saw "Sunday." Although, it was a Friday, so I'm not sure what's going on there. Perhaps she foresaw that that would be unable to change her undies until Sunday? Ick." She flicked her tongue out in distaste. "There's a troll in the forest!"

"False."

"False, I heard McGongall tell Flitwick that it was more likely to be a boggart that someone had seen. Dumbledore only wears his glasses to seem wise."

"False, not that I wouldn't put it past him, but it seems a bit of a waste. Is it?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Luna thinks so but-"

"Luna's two apples short of a crumble?"

"Don't," she scolded, but teasingly. "Luna's lovely. Why do you always compare her to baked goods?"

"I suppose that's what's always on my mind. I'm a fan of desserts."

"I didn't know that!" Ginny exclaimed delightedly. "I'll make you something!" I must have looked stricken, as she laughed and swatted at me playfully.

"I'll definitely think about eating it," I promised. She smiled. "And gagging on it." She frowned.

Fortunately by that point we were at the lake. I could see where Ginny had been coming from, the Lake did indeed look very nice. The surface was completely black and reflected the stars on it's mirror like surface. I wished for some wind. Some rain? Some ice.

"Come on Draco," called Ginny, already walking down the jetty, her footsteps making hollow noises on the wood, and when I glanced down, I realised she wasn't wearing shoes.

"I forgot them," she said, and I frowned, sure that her feet hadn't been bare when she was dancing with the suit of armour. "On the way down, I forgot them, separately. I'm sure we'll find them on our way back up," she added serenely. (We didn't.) Definitely spending too much time with that Lovegood child.

We walked down to the end of the jetty, which didn't really go far in, but far enough for the water to deepen significantly, and to get away from the weeds growing like swaying arms towards the sky.

"Well, this is very nice Gin, shall we go back inside now?" I asked, thinking eagerly of cool showers and not wearing shirts that stuck to me and feeling so horribly hot all the time. I couldn't wait to learn how to do a cooling charm. I was going to use them all the time.

"We've only just got here! I wanted to paddle my feet!" Saying that, she sat down at the edge of the jetty, letting her legs hang over the side and taking off her cloak to save the hems from trailing in the water. Her legs were freckled and boney, Ginny always looked as though she'd not quite finished puberty, still a little gangly, not filled out in the right places. Combined with her childish attitude, it gave her an air of timelessness. With a tired sigh, I complied with her and dangled my own feet in the water, feeling a pleasurably jolt at the cool temperature of the water in contrast to the humid air.

"Do you know any of the stars?" Ginny asked, leaning back on her hands and craning her neck to see the sky. I could see the stars reflected in her eyes. I did know the names of several stars, knew constellations as well. So would you if practically your entire family was named after them, but I stayed quiet, knowing the names would mean nothing to her.

"I think," she whispered, pointing with one hand and leaning towards me, "that the star just there, and the four below it, look like a bunny rabbit."

"They do not."

"They do, if you squint and tip your head to the right." She did so. I did so.

"They still don't."

She didn't say anything, just swung her legs in the water, causing little waves to splash around her ankles. I was so absorbed in the movement of the water, I didn't notice her shuffle towards me, so that our arms were touching and her hair was on my shoulder.

"Draco," she whispered, and I suppressed a shiver as she said my name. "You know what happens now, don't you?"

"What?" I began to say hoarsely, but before the words could form she'd pulled her legs up from the water and pushed me in.

For a second I panicked, not sure what had happened and engulfed by the lake, but then my brain caught up. The water was pleasantly cool after being in the hot air for so long, and I was fully able to swim. But the fact remained that she had pushed me in. She had pushed me into the lake. And she'd clearly been planning to do it all along. Well, I couldn't have that.

I broke through the surface and shook my hair out of my eyes grimacing as I realised my style was ruined. Ginny was crouched on the edge of the jetty, visibly shaking with barely suppressed laughter, the odd giggled breaking through.

"Ginny! You pushed me in!" I exclaimed with mock indignation, swimming up to the jetty and treading water. I could feel my shirt pulling me down, so I unbuttoned it and shrugged it off, throwing it on the side next to Ginny, who was still hysterical.

"Very funny, now help me out," I said, acting hurt. She sobered a little and put out a hand to help me, before getting a better stance. Bad move Gin. In a moment, I grabbed her hand and pulled. She gasped involuntarily and shifted slightly in an attempt to stay on the wooden platform, before pitching forward into the water, practically on top of me and pushing me under again.

"Oooh, the water's lovely," was the first thing she said as she resurfaced, her head and shoulders bobbing above the water, red hair plastered against her head, looking tamer than it ever had. The white shirt she was wearing was sopping, and so was her skirt, I assumed. My trousers felt as though they'd sucked up half the lake.

"Not half bad," I agreed, flapping a little water at her which hit her in the eye and she blinked it out.

"You've soaked my shirt," she said, looking at the offending garment and bringing up a sodden shirt sleeve. "Urg, it's heavy!" Saying that, she swiftly unbuttoned it and shimmied out of it, to reveal a pale pink camisole underneath, which clashed a little with her hair, but it was dark, so no one could tell.

She turned to throw her shirt on the deck, next to mine, and shrieked when she turned back and saw that I was right next to her, preventing her from moving away from the jetty.

"Draco? What are you-" She stopped speaking as I moved closer, so that we were hardly a hair's breath apart and whispered in her ear.

"You know what happens now, don't you Ginny?"

She turned her head to meet my gaze with a questioning look and I winked at her before disappeared beneath the water. Ginny twisted around to see where I'd gone to, then looked nervously downwards, only to be thwarted by the murky depths. She took a breath and then-

-screamed as I grasped her ankles and pulled her down in a swirl of froth and flailing limbs and almost choking and half laughing half shrieking.

The next half hour carried on like that, chases and splashes and hot night air on cool wet skin.When we finally pulled ourselves onto the jetty, dripping and exhausted, with warm, sleepy limbs and wrinkled skin, the first threads of light were casting out from the horizon, and we walked back to school carrying our clothes (Ginny put on her cloak for decency's sake) during what I call the grey dawn, when light is spilling slowly across the world but the shadows are long and the sun weak and everything except Ginny's hair seemed bleached of colour.

We said goodbye at the staircase as I trudged down to the dungeons, heedless of the trail of water I was leaving. The humid air was making my clothes warm, if not dry, and promised another day of sunshine, another day I was sure I would not be joining until late afternoon. Thank goodness for Saturdays.

I finally arrived in my room and couldn't do much more than collapse on my bed, throwing my clothes into a corner of my room and feeling the damp sink into my duvet and pillow.

I was just drifting along the edge of sleep, feeling it's warm tendrils pulling me in while simultaneously being aware of the too warm touch of my duvet on my back, and the annoying drip of water from my hair, when the door creaked open quietly. Groggily, half convinced that I was asleep, I rose to my elbows and observed a damp Ginny closing the door and glancing at me guiltily.

"Sorry, I woke you," she whispered. "Couldn't get into the common room, and I didn't want to sit outside until someone found me.." She trailed off awkwardly, leaving the "so I came here," in the air.

I stifled a groan and sat up.

"You're welcome to Nott's bed," I said, waving in the general direction. "Uhm, there are some t-shirts in the top drawer, if...you want to change. If you need anything, just say." I lay back down, wondering why I felt so strange, it was usually so easy with Ginny, in the dim light, she seemed as uncertain as me, and somehow clumsier. On second thoughts, I turned onto my side, facing the wall away from her.

"Thanks," I heard, and then I heard Nott's bed creak, a foreign noise, as no one had slept in it for months. The drawer groaned open, there were muffled whispers of fabric, as she put on a t-shirt, and I felt a wave of possessiveness in knowing that she was wearing my t-shirt. Perhaps I could convince her to do it more often. The bed creaked again, and I knew that she was lying on the bed as clear as if I could see her. I let out a breath of air that I didn't realise I'd been holding. It was strange to know that she was lying there, just a few metres away from me. I expected sleep to have strayed beyond my grasp, but it quickly engulfed me.

I did not dream.

That wasn't the last time Ginny stayed over. After that first night, any time she couldn't get back into her room or couldn't be bothered to trek over there, she'd crash on Nott's bed, it wasn't awkward. Or at least, not as awkward. I got a house elf to change the sheets to a neutral white, and she even left a spare pair of plaid flannel pajamas that kept mysteriously disappearing when she wanted to stay and reappearing later. Fortunately for her, I was more than willing to lend her a t-shirt.

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So, review! I adore that last part, the last few paragraphs are just LOVE. Some pretty good writing I think! EH? EH? Just a nice Draco/Ginny Fluff without Fluff bit to ease us in to the angst of the next chapter. 


	3. Into the Deep

This chapter is up courtesy of SnowEmpress. Did anyone get their AS or A2 results? I am thrilled to pieces as I got four A grades! I got a B in general studies though :p

In this chapter, I introduce a new character, otherwise known as **angst**. Oh and there's a new character as well.

I've been thinking, I don't think this fic will have as many readers, because it's a sequel, so people will be like "is there any point" and I will be like "yes, there's a point" but they will not hear me and continue on their merry way, therefore all the readers who do read should review! Reviews make me write! Writing makes me update! Updating makes you happy, right?

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the spiderman mask I'm wearing.

Disclaimer: I do not own spiderman, just the mask.

But you know, I do read spider man. I would swap with MJ any day of the week.

Not Fridays though, I like my fridays. hey, today's friday. No it's Sunday now. NO it's SATURDAY. God, morons Honestly.

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As soon as I stepped into my room, I could sense that I wasn't alone. Nott's bed was empty as usual, the dark green cover pulled straight and I thought there was a spider web in a corner. He'd like that, he had gone off horses a little, a fact which had upset Ginny, since she'd finally gotten around to sending him a stable set with three horses which brayed and stamped their hooves. Right now he was quite into spiders, constantly correcting anyone who dared call them insects. Which was something of a surprise to people, most of which had never heard Nott say a word. Ginny'd sent him (anonymously of course) a plush grey spider with floppy legs that he'd christened Blair and carried her around with him everywhere. I've no idea where the name Blair came from. Seriously, that guy should get help.

But my room wasn't empty, because on my bed, there was a large crease and a dip in the middle, suggesting that it wasn't vacant. I smiled inwardly before walking toward my dressing table nonchalantly and taking off my tie.

"Evening Gin."

"Darn, I knew I'd fail stealthy-ness 101." Her voice sounded a little deflated, and as she spoke, the covers shifted as she stood up and paced. I'd become quite adept at judging where she was in the past months, despite her invisibility.

"The confidence of an invisibility cloak has gone to your head" I chided. Despite becoming better at detecting her movements, I hated speaking to her like this when I couldn't see her face, I didn't know what she was thinking because I couldn't see her face. She lifted my comb to eye level and examined it critically, I assume, instead of answering me. Her silence was probably the most worrying thing. Ginny always had something to say, be it a sassy comeback, or a sarcastic quip, or a completely random comment that threw me and everyone else listening into a pit of confusion.

As she said nothing, I slung my tie over the back of a chair and walked over to where my comb apparently levitated, the teeth vibrating slightly as an unseen thumb rubbed over them to make them hum. I knew her by now, and even without seeing her could reach for the cloak and pull it off, letting it drop away and reveal the girl beneath, fiddling with my comb and and not meeting my gaze.

I folded the invisibility cloak and draped it over my chair, next to my tie, before turning my gaze to Ginny who had replaced my comb and was riffling through my toiletries. This was commonplace for her, she knew my grooming habits as well as I did and liked inspecting each of the bottles, unscrewing the lids and taking a sniff, wrinkling her nose in distaste or sighing in appreciation. Normally she'd make some joke about my having more products than she did, but not today.

Standing some feet away, I watched the girl I'd come to know so well. Her hair, still that burnt red, still curly, but less frizzy, the length seemed longer and it was a little tamer but still hung loosely, the way I loved it. Her eyes were downcast, shaded slightly by her hair and I could still remember the day of the picnic where I'd been close enough to see the freckles on her eyelids, the creases from laughter at the edge of her eyes. It seemed a life time ago now, but in truth only a few months in my past. She seemed fixated in the bottle in her hands, turning it over, tracing the contours with her delicate fingers, but something in her expression, perhaps the twist of her mouth that wasn't usually there, or the slightest crease between her eyebrows showed that she wasn't concentrating on it. The tell tale red on her cheeks betraying her emotions if you knew how to read it. She was angry, or upset, a little embarrassed from the blush on the tips of her ears and blotches of colour splattered on her cheekbones. Still dressed in her school clothes, black cloak covering her slim figure and what I thought was my quidditch shirt, hardly any curves to speak of, but there was something about it that I liked, maybe something to do with how easy it was to lift her up, to wrap your arms all around her and feel her pressed against you, and I wasn't thinking about that when I looked at her, it hadn't occured to me. When I did hug her, touch her in any way, it was spontaneous and not often. Our relationship was strictly platonic, there was no need to ruin it with unwanted emotions, never mind the entire can of worms that it would open up if we were-

There was no need to think about it, it wasn't even an option. Since the meeting in the broom closet (good thing he'd never mentioned that to Blaise, the guy was already certain that they were much more than friends) we'd never raised the subject of changing our relationship to something more. And just as well, we had enough to deal with. This wasn't the first time she'd come to me upset, heck it wasn't the first time this week. I had a vague idea of the problem, but I wanted her to explain it properly. At least Ginny wasn't a weeper, defiant, stubborn and with a horrible habit of ignoring her problems, but she didn't cry.

Now she replaced the bottle and looked up at me, finally meeting my eyes. I offered her a small smile, and my open arms, and she took two steps and hugged me tight. Ginny liked hugs. That's why I was hugging her. I wasn't really fussed. Not a hugger me. But you know, to make her happy. I mean, she was a good person to hug, she arched her back and pressed into you, and put her arms around your neck and her face into your shoulder. And you feel..peaceful? I don't know, but it's a good feeling, and it doesn't get awkward. She's shorter than me, not short, middleish height I guess, so her hair tickles my nose, but I don't mind, because she uses some sort of floral shampoo that I'm sure was a gift, because she doesn't seem the type to go out and buy floral shampoo, but it smells nice, of her, I suppose.

After a few moments, she pulled back but left her arms around my neck, which I liked. Sort of. I liked it because she was twisting my hair around, and I liked that, I didn't like it because when she does things like that, I have to remind myself that I wanted to be just friends, and that it wouldn't be fair to suddenly change my mind.

"Lavender and Paravati," she said, in a dark voice.

"What, again?"

"Of course, they've nothing better to do than talk about other people." I hated hearing the bitterness in her voice, but I couldn't reproach her for it.

"Didn't your brother do anything?"

"He wasn't there, they cornered me in the girl's dorms. I thought they'd given up since he yelled at them last time, but no, their life's aim is to torment me." She disentangled her arms from my neck and flopped on my bed.

Although the last few months had been generally good, full of hijinx and laughter, not everyone had been as understanding as Blaise and Pansy. The golden trio were being very decent, and I appreciated it, especially their standing up for Ginny. They didn't like her decision to remain friends with me and spend copious amounts of time in my company, but they respected her decision, for now at least. Some of the Gryffindors were less agreeable. Paravati and Lavender in particular were constantly needling Ginny. Nothing particularly hateful, as far as I could tell all they did was ask her about me, about our relationship, and then made snide remarks about me being the rebound since Potter wasn't interested. I didn't take kindly to rumours like that, and to his credit, Potter had been doing his best to silence them, even if I knew it was through no love for me.

I was somewhat better off, Blaise, Pansy and Daphne didn't seem at all different around Ginny, which wasn't always a good thing as I was forever preventing arguments breaking out, but at least they stuck by me. Pansy was coming around to Luna, and Daphne had taken my friendship with Ginny as a welcome card to give the boys of Gryffindor a test run. Although, I sometimes detected an air of confusion in Pansy and Blaise as though they were wondering how I could enjoy Ginny's more Gryffindor quirks. Still, I could really appreciate their friendship, I know Slytherins aren't supopsed to care about friendship or love or anything like that, but that's bull, a guy needs friends. The thing was, no one was going to give me a hard time, oh there were some glares at lunchtime, and it was obvious my reputation had gone down, but I had ceased caring about my reputation a long time ago. What's the point of having an amazing reputation, if you weren't enjoying it?

It was Ginny I was most worried about.

She was lying on her tummy, on my bed, legs kicked up in the air, shoes slipped off at some point and sitting neatly on the floor, leaving her white socks with lace on the sides bare. I'd teased her many times about that, but she was unabashed.

"Planning revenge?"

"Always," she said, but then sighed and rolled onto her back. "But you know I'll never do it."

She never did, revenge wasn't something Ginny was good at, although she delighted in plotting and planning.

"You could always use the invisibility cloak to steal their diaries and read them or something? I bet they have diaries." I suppose this is corrupting minors. Darn. Saying that, I picked up the cloak and turned it over, marvelling at the double layer. Ginny made a non commital noise from the bed, and started complaining about them again.

"You know, this is an amazing cloak," I murmured, running my hand over the stitching. I'd have loved a cloak like this. Ginny was still talking, but my attention was on the cloak. I'd never actually put it on, and it now occured to me that it was much bigger than Ginny was. Slinging it across my shoulders I was surprised to see it fit me, just about, a little tight around the upper arms. I took it off again and looked at it in surprise. Whoever had originally worn this cloak had been much bigger than Ginny. I would have said a boy my age but then where had she come across it? Her family couldn't have passed it on to her. It was probably more expensive than everything she owned.

"Ginny, where'd you get this?" I asked, interuppting her flow of insults.

"What? I told you, hand me down," she said, apparently distracted, a pout beginning on her lips.

Her answer was not comforting, firstly she'd never offered an explanation, and certainly not that it was a hand me down. And secondly, no Weasley could have afforded this. It might be one of a kind for all I knew.

"Are you sure?" I asked carefully, not wanting to sound suspicious.

"Why, you think my family is too poor to afford it?" Her voice was sarcastic, but there was an edge.

"No, but I don't see why you would have it. This sort of thing is made specifically for a purpose, it's hardly off the rack."

It seemed to have been the wrong thing to say, her eyes blazed and she jumped off the bed and stalked up to me, snatched the cloak out my grasp and shrugging it on angrily, so that she disappeared as she spoke.

"Why do you care so much about the stupid cloak? I said it's a hand me down, and that's what it is. If I'd wanted to be interrogated I'd have gone to Snape." Her voice came out of thin air, and she stomped out of the room, slamming the door angrily.

The necklace was white gold, with a heavy diamond set in the round pendant. I weighed in in my hand, before shaking my head and moving to another counter.

I was in Hogsmeade, I'd originally planned to go with Ginny, but since we'd argued, and she'd stormed out, we'd not spoken. It had been a few days, and now I was tempted to buy her something so that she'd speak to me again. Pansy and Blaise were in Madame Pudifoots, making fun of the couples and laughing at the sickly sweet decor. Daphne hadn't joined us, deigning to stay at school for some extra tutoring with her Arithmancy Professor. The less known about that, the better. Let's just say she'd never handed in a piece of homework on time, and was still averaging an "O."

I was in a jewellery shop. I guess that says something about me. I have an argument with a girl and the first thing I think of is to get her something pretty and shiny. Well actually this was my first time buying a girl jewellery.. or anything for that matter. And I wasn't having much luck. I'd trudged through displays of rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces, in the one jewellers in Hogsmeade, a classy place called "Wizarding Treasures." The shop was mainly empty, it was hardly a popular destination, most students couldn't afford their cheapest item, never mind anything else. Luckily for me, my bank balance was healthy.

I milled over to the open display for semi precious stones, having not had much success with the rarer pieces. I wasn't sure Ginny would like jewellery, but I had no idea what she might like. And at least jewellery was a good peace offering. Not that I wasn't annoyed with her. Storming out like that had been unnecessary, regardless of her bad day. Still, I wasn't going to hold grudges and if she was ready to make peace so would I. Hence the jewellery. But really, it was hard to decide what to buy. Primarily because I didn't see the point of it. Mother adored it, so did Pansy, but I couldn't see the need behind it. Pansy had once said that expensive jewellery shows that a man is serious, but perhaps my problem is that I have enough money to buy a handful of girls expensive jewellery without being remotely serious.

Still, there was no point in getting her something she wouldn't wear. But I'd hardly seen Ginny wear any jewellery. She had some plastic bracelets she sometimes slung on her too skinny wrists and I knew she had pierced ears, but she never wore anything other than studs. It wasn't really practical for her, I mused, long earrings would get tangled in her hair, rings would get covered in paint or slime or mud or whatever she decided to stick her fingers in, and any expensive bracelets would probably fall off. So I'd settled on necklaces, something simple. Which ruled on the three inch ruby encrusted choker. Good thing too, she'd not be able to move her neck.

Finally, I came across something I liked, a collection of silver necklaces, each set with a different semi precious stone at the centre of a flower shaped pendant. I reached forward to pick up one with a rose quartz centre, it occured to me that Ginny liked pink, as someone else reached for it. I paused, glancing along the definitely feminine hand, seeing a hogwarts regulation robe, a Ravenclaw crest on it, and a pretty girl with light brown hair looking at me. She had intelligent features and cracked a smile as our eyes met.

"You have it, out of my price range anyway," she said with a sigh, and dropped her hand slightly to caress a similar necklace with a dark blue gem at the centre. Her voice was friendly, and I realised that there were people, girls, who lusted after items like this, thinking that they were the key to beauty, the way to make a boy like them, the way to get noticed.

"I didn't take you for the jewellery buying type. Going to get your ears pierced too?" Her voice knocked me out of my musings and I realised that I was still poised over the pink necklace, while she'd picked up the other and was tracing the pendant with her index finger.

"I'm buying for a friend," the obvious thing seemed to be to reply to her, even if I didn't know her and she had no reason to be talking to me.

"Not Ginny Weasley is it?"

"What?" I said sharply, she'd finally got my attention. I left the necklace and looked at her, as she observed the way her gem caught the light with appreciation, before meeting my eyes. She arched her eyebrows at my incredulous look.

"Surely you realise all of Hogwarts knows about the two of you, breaking the unspoken taboo? A Gryffindor and a Slytherin. It's almost poetic." Obviously. I chided myself, she was a hogwarts student, obviously she'd know.

"I'm Eliza by the way," she added with a smile.

"Draco," I murmured distractedly, I hadn't realised how..public we were.

"You don't say," she replied, but she smiled and brushed a hand through her shoulder length brown hair. "So, are you two together?"

I choked on air at the abruptness of the question, and had to take a few (discreet) steadying breaths before answering. A glance at her eyes, which I noticed were a steadying green, told me she knew that it was an inappropriately intimate question to be asking someone you just met, and that wasn't going to stop her.

"Why does everyone think that?" I finally settled on.

"Perhaps because you are constantly in each others company, neither of you are repulsive and well, everyone loves a scandal," she replied in a clear voice, that made her seem as though she was thinking about what she was saying, although at the speed she was speaking, I wondered if that was possible. "So tell me, are you buying jewellery for her?"

There didn't seem to be anything for it but to tell the truth.

"Yes," she continued looking at me, as though waiting for me to continue. "She's angry with me.. I pushed an issue that she didn't want to talk about.."

"So it's make up jewellery?"

"I suppose. I'm not sure if I'll give it to her." If you asked me now why I continued talking to this girl I'd just met, I couldn't tell you. Only that she was very easy to talk to, one of those faces. She didn't get distracted like Ginny, or glaze over like Pansy tended to. Just nod and look at you, very intensely.

Just then, she gave me an odd look, and a slight crease appeared between her eyebrows, then it was gone and replaced with an expression that seemed a little sad.

"You are together," she said. I opened my mouth to protest but she cut me off. "You might not be kissing or cuddling, but you're buying her jewellery because you upset her. When it sounds like it was her fault for keeping things from you. You're as together as Filch and Mrs Norris."

I gaped.

"And with that lovely image, I'll leave you. Buy the necklace and give it to her, I'd go with her pink," with another sad look, she offered me a smile that didn't reach her eyes and left the store. I stood there for a few minutes, before swallowing, picking up the necklaces with the pink and blue gemstones and heading for the counter.

When I returned to my room, two small boxes in my pocket, I was surprised to find Ginny and Daphne sitting on Nott's bed and giggling at each other. As soon as I entered, they sobered, Daphne stood and left, smiling at Ginny and raising her eyebrows at me.

As the door closed I walked to the wardrobe to replace my cloak on a hanger and loosened my tie, before turning to face Ginny who was sitting cross legged on the white duvet and looking at me nervously. I hadn't decided what I was going to say, so I was slightly relieved when she opened her mouth to speak.

"Sorry," she offered. I nodded, and watched as she lifted her cloak, which had been folded next to her and passed it to me. I looked at her queryingly, but took the cloak anyway.

"In my first year, I opened the chamber of secrets and set the basilisk on muggleborns. I couldn't be seen, so I wore that." I tried not to betray my surprise. I'd never dreamt Ginny had anything to do with the Chamber of Secrets, bar being the unfortunate student dragged down to die. I'd not thought of that either really. It seemed disconnected to the girl I knew.

"I was possessed of course," she continued matter-of-factly. "Didn't know what was going on, I'd just wake up and not know how I'd got there, I lost track of time and would be unable to recount where I'd been. It was only after the whole thing that I discovered that at some point I'd stopped wearing the cloak that mum had bought and I was wearing Tom's. See the label?"

I unfolded the cloak and searched for the label on the collar.

"T.M. Riddle," I read. "Tom?"

"Voldemort." I suppressed a shiver as she said his name. "Before he was Voldemort. When he was young and handsome and charming, he kept a diary and I found it, I'd been writing in it."

Here she stopped abruptly and swallowed, not quite meeting my eyes, but I knew better than to ask if she was keeping something from me.

"And you still wear his cloak?" I asked instead, but leaving the judgemental "that's crazy" in my head. Her story explained why it was too big for her, how she'd come across an item of such value and why she hadn't wanted to tell me, but now why she would wear such a thing, something that belonged to a man that had tried to kill her and her friends so many times.

"It's useful. And it's part of me. Tom was cold, and manipulative, but he was also a friend. He only used me, I know that now, but...What do you think?" She looked up at me with pleading eyes, wanting something, though neither of us knew what, and I wondered how someone that seemed so optimistic, so giddily happy, could hold such twisted shadows.

"I think, it's time to stop being invisible, Gin," I said evenly, folding the cloak and putting it in the bottom of my chest of drawers. I didn't ask her, but she made no move to stop me, simply watched. I stood back up, and we savoured the silence for a moment before I broke it.

"I got you something," I said, fishing the pink box out of my pocket and throwing it to her. She caught it, but didn't open it.

"Thanks. You didn't have to. I'll see you later?"

"Sure," I said with a small smile, which she returned before leaving.

Later that evening I made my way to the owlery and sent Persephone off with a small blue box, identical except for colour to Ginny's pink one. It wasn't the key to beauty, but I still thought Eliza might like it.

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And the end of another chapter! Quite long don't you think? Problems, queries, or just uncontrolled compliments? Review! No seriously, if I don't have like..seven reviews tomorrow morning I'm going to be a sad bunny.

Is anyone going "But Dooookiii, you haven't said anything about "something or other"?" Cause if you are, speak now! I forget stuff, so you must remindeth me!

Oh, also, every time someone reviews me, I try to read some of their stuff, and review them and pm peoples and things, so that's nice. And if you get a randomly long pm from me, do excuse me, I like talking :)


	4. Of Youth

Next chapter! By the by, I'm going on holiday later this week, so I might put a chapter up just before I go, or I might not and you wont get another chapter for a while. I liked the response that Eliza got, 'cause I'm always a bit worried about introducing original characters, but she seems pretty cool.

This chapter, we finally find out "the deal with professor snape" which humourously is canon, although unintentionally. It's a little angsty...I'm actually getting concerned that the whole story is becoming very angsty...and draco-centric...well let me know what you think. Oh, and this chapter was Beta'd by Tayler!

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An owl at breakfast had commanded me to abandon my peers and meet Snape in his quarters at eight. Well, the owl hadn't said that, but Snape's note that the owl had brought did. I arrived early for once, having left Ginny talking to Nott and "Blair."

The door opened when I knocked, and I noticed that the black knight I'd seen there on previous occasions had disappeared. Stepping inside, I closed the door and cleared my throat to alert Snape of my presence. The potions master was reading something at his desk but glanced up when I came in.

Truth be told, I was a little nervous as to what this was about. I hadn't spoken to Snape outside classes since the uh... well, since the Cranberry Incident, as we now called it. And while that had been as successful as we could hope, (Filch's office destroyed- 50 points. Cranberry wave- 100 points. Punishment Evaded- 80 points) we hadn't really bargained on Snape finding out that we'd been in his room and looked through his personal things. But you know, really if you think about it, it's his own fault. He should have put a magical ward on or something. If you ask me, the man was getting cocky, assuming his reputation would deter anyone from breaking in.

I had been wondering though, what exactly was it that we'd discovered? Was Snape really in love with her? How had they even met? And what had happened? Obviously she'd married James Potter and had that tragic ending, but in between? More importantly, where did my mother fit in in all of this? But, I didn't really think Snape had called me to his office to discuss his private life.

"I have here a letter from your father," he said, standing up from his desk and holding the parchment he'd been reading. I froze, the Malfoy crest clearly emblazoned on the letter. Since when did father dearest send letters to Snape? I hadn't heard from him in months, not that I was concerned, he was generally far too busy to write to me, and therefore delegated the task to mother

"He says that he's heard some strange rumours of your activities and wants to know if they're true," Snape continued in a disinterested voice, but I knew he was far from it. I said nothing. I had anticipated that father would eventually learn of my change in position, but my recent behaviour would have kick started the effect. My problem was singular, as far as I knew Crabbe and Goyle were happy to do whatever their father's wanted, and if it meant they didn't have to think for themselves, all the better. Pansy and Blaise's parents, although pureblood, were not affiliated with the Dark Lord. I envied their positions. Daphne's mother was muggleborn, a fact that she kept discreetly under wraps, and therefore Daphne had no intention of joining. Amusingly enough, the only student in the same predicament as me was Theo Nott, whose father was a deatheater, but if his antics at school were anything to go by, he wouldn't be joining him.

"I can write back saying that these reports are false that you remain faithful to the cause , or, I could write differently." Snape finished, fixing his onyx gaze upon me. It suddenly seemed to me as though I was at a cross roads. I could tell Snape to do either, it was clear from his demeanour that he'd comply. I could let father think I was going along with his plan. Or I could let him know that I had no intentions of doing so. There was an obvious choice. I would only be putting off the inevitable if I let him go on believing I would join him. He'd find out eventually. At least this way it was of my own choosing.

"Write the truth." Snape glanced at me, with an unreadable look but nodded. Apparently this was all he wanted, as when I didn't immediately leave, and instead took a seat in one of the dark armchairs he had, he looked at my in surprise.

"Did you love her?" I asked, bluntly. I could go through the whole "yes we broke into your office and we know you once had a crush on Harry Potter's mother," but I could do without the hassle. "Lily Evans, I mean. Did you?"

For a minute, I didn't think he was going to say anything. I thought he'd order me to leave, in a tight, controlled voice, or deny everything with a sarcastic arch of his eyebrows, but he did neither, just sighed heavily before answering.

"Completely and utterly."

I paused, considering the weight of that statement. I'd probably never know the ins and outs, the detail of how he came to know her, love her, how she felt about him, but I needed to know one more thing.

"What happened?"

Snape gave a short and bitter laugh, as though he'd been expecting the question, as though he'd answered it dozens of times and still felt pain over the answer.

"What do you think happened?" He smiled, but it was a twisted, warped smile.

"But you loved her? Wanted to be with her?"

"I wanted her and I wanted the power the dark lord brought. I couldn't let go of either. And I betrayed both in the end."

I took a tight breath of air. I should have known of course, but hearing it like this, made it seem so real, so sharp. As naive as it was, I'd never expected that Snape had a proper life, a childhood, a tragic love story. He had been a kid like me at some point. In a similar position to me, with a myriad of paths spreading out from his feet like ink stains, and so many ending in tragedy. Would I, like him choose the wrong one and end up twisted and soured beyond recognition? Snape seemed to read my mind.

"It wont happen like that for you," he said simply, a compassion in his eyes that was reassuring after the darkness that had been there before. "You have something I never had." I looked at him, the question in my expression. "You have friends."

I digested this news silently. It was true, of course. And I was only starting to appreciate just what a big different having friends made. I'm not sure why I asked the next thing I did. In my defence, this seemed to be Ask Snape Hour and I've never been one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"And my mother?"

For the first time in this entire exchange, Snape looked genuinely shocked, but quickly put on a neutral expression.

"I know you did something, she's crazy about you, after all these years. And I want to know why." Snape looked mildly appeased and slightly flattered, but still retained the dark look he'd had before.

"What happened between myself and your mother..is not something I'm proud of, nor something that I would like to speak about infront of her offspring." I raised my eyebrows, but didn't push the point. I could come to my own conclusions on that.

"Well whatever you did, you could probably fix it with one letter." He arched a dark brow.

"You're trying to set me up with your mother, who happens to be married to your father, who is one of the more dangerous men in the wizarding world? Either you're trying to kill me, or you've been spending far too much time with that Weasley girl. She's mad you know."

"She has an inner logic."

"I think our conversation has gone on quite long enough," said Snape, waving me away with his hand while rubbing his temple with his other. I bid him goodnight, and left, my mind buzzing with the revelations of what he'd said and what the repercussions of this evening would be.

Upon arriving in the Slytherin Common room, I went straight up to my dorm, with the intent of trying to digest everything I'd learnt tonight, and work out what it meant for me. When I opened the door, however, I found Ginny, making her bed. She greeted me with a smile as I took off my cloak and closed the door.

"Did you fall asleep?" I asked, gesturing to the unmade bed.

"Nope," she replied, popping the word and brushing a strand of hair out of her face. "I was in here, tidying up, when Nott came in, apparently wanting to sleep in a bed for once. I had to distract him from realising I'd stolen his room, by playing Mattress Tennis."

Mattress Tennis was a game that Ginny and I had worked out one afternoon when she'd been fed up of Gryffindorks staring at her, and come to my dorm for some peace. It consisted of playing tennis whilst jumping on your bed. Generally, I used a book for a racquet and her toy rabbit (named Eugene) for a ball.

"He fell for it?"

"Like a Hufflepuff on a broom. He had such a good time he's convinced that he never had a room."

"I'm corrupting you," I said carelessly.

"Oh yes. My loss of innocence is simply tragic."

I glanced around her side of the room, and took in the changes. As well as the now white bed spread with Eugene propped against her pillow, she'd put up a poster of a puffskien biting a washing line to prevent itself falling. The poster read "Hang In There Puffy." There was also a picture frame on the bedside table, the plastic spaghetti kind.

"You know, I've said it before, but that kid is great," said Ginny, pulling her bedspread straight and surveying her handiwork with a pleased grin.

"Gin, what is this?" I asked in an amused voice, picking up the picture frame. Ginny looked mildly petrified, and then settled down and joined me, looking at a chubby ten year old with a huge sombrero give a toothy grin at the camera.

"That is me," she said pointing to the little girl who now tilted the hat slightly, to give me a view of her red hair, even frizzier than it was now. "And that," she pointed to her hat, "is a massive sombrero."

"Is there a story here?"

"If by story, you mean, did I badger my mum to buy the biggest mail order sombrero she could find so that I could pretend to be blonde, yes. I hated my hair," Ginny said, subconciously running a hand through her wild curls. We were now sitting on her white duvet and watching while ten year old Ginny giggled silently.

"I like your hair," I said blandly, pulling out a strand and watching it spring back into place.

"Will you let me borrow your shampoo then, so I can be as cool as you?"

I pretended it think about it, when in fact the idea of her using the same shampoo as me was hugely appealing.

"I suppose, you can share my bathroom too if you like. Although this sounds like you're moving in."

"I might as well, I've already put my toothbrush in the mug."

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And le end of another chapter. I'm hugely flattered by the amount of reviews I'm getting, although you know...I could always do with more. Also, if you're writing a story that you think I'd like, tell me about it and we can do a chapter swap, you know, where you put up a chapter in return for me putting up a chapter. But you have to actually put the chapter up! UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE glares at snow empress I'm still waiting for my DL fix!

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Must stop babbling. REVIEW.


	5. War

The next chapter! Not much to say, except this is a cute fluff chapter with no real progress. Also please enjoy this and the next chapter, as I fear you will plot my death for the chapter after that. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, without you there'd be no story.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a silver spoon.

There was a branch in my way, and it was obscuring my view of the war ground.

I was crouched in a ditch, hidden by a stooped oak tree, and gazing across no man's land.

Moving the branch out of my sight with one hand, the other braced reassuringly on my gun, I crept forward a little and scanned the area. The sky was grey and angry, hanging above the landscape like a turbulent sea.

All clear, the grass was torn up and the ground battered. No wild life, no trees, nothing. I turned to move back and report to my camp, when I saw the tiniest blur of movement. I spun back, releasing the safety on my gun and scanning the terrain. There it was again, a flash of red just beyond the trees on the other side of the field.

"Blaise," I called softly over my shoulder, "they're on the move, I'm going to see what they're up to."

Blaise, my second in command nodded, keeping his steely eyes fixed on the horizon.

"It's too quiet," he murmured, drumming the barrel of his gun with his fingers. "I don't trust them when they're quiet."

"Be careful," I said, and made my way out of our base.

I crept softly across the ground, taking care not to stand on any twigs or dried leaves that would give me away. I intended to sneak around, through the long grass and surprise the enemy. Hopefully that would give me an edge. I didn't fancy waiting until they built up their forces and ambushed me.

I lopped forwards, keeping low so that I was well disguised, they wouldn't see me unless they came out of the trees, away from their cover. And if they did, well I was armed.

I came to a stop behind a large sycamore tree, and leaned against it, regrouping for a moment, before turning and peering out from my hiding place.

Bingo. They were just standing there, two of them, I wasn't sure where the third was, probably behind that largish tree. Sitting ducks. I smirked to myself, this was going to be easy.

I raised my rifle, taking aim and I was about to squeeze the trigger when-

SPLAT.

Oh that was going to leave a mark.

I had a brief moment to realise that I had, in fact been hit with pink paint, right on my chest. Then I spun around, trying to identify where the shot had come from. The two girls that had been previously standing were now no where to be seen, and nor was my attacker.

SPLAT.

SPLAT.

SPLAT.

Chest, shoulder, head. Lucky I was wearing a helmet and it just splattered against the shield. I angrily wiped it away, grimacing as I felt the pink paint stick to my hand, but sensing some satisfaction that I knew where the paint was coming from.

Above.

I ran back a little and looked into the sycamore I'd been under. And as suspected, Ginny was perched there, her gun aimed straight at me, about to shoot.

"Protego!" I yelled without thinking, whipping out my wand and a shield flew up, easily repelling the small paint ball.

"Cheater!" She called down, swiftly jumping out of the tree and running into a copse of trees. I followed closely, I was going to get some paint on her if it was the last thing I did today.

WHAT? Paint, Ginny and my god several images that had wormed their way into my mind that should not be there. I shook myself, too many late nights, not enough Ginny- NO. I shook myself again, the original shake had obviously not been even slightly good enough.

Unfortunately, Ginny had the advantage again, and had disappeared into the bushes. I stalked forward, intent on finding her, and cursing my overactive imagination. A slight giggle (that was always her weakness) alerted me to her presence in a clearing further from the forest that we'd previously been, and I crept out.

Ginny was giggling madly to herself, behind a large mulberry bush, heedless of the fact that she was out in the open for all to see. She was fumbling with her ammo and kept dropping them, then having to pick them out of the grass.

Never one to waste an oppurtunity, I fired almost straight up, so that the paint ball came down right on Ginny's head. I was using green paint balls obviously, and there was a brilliant splatter of emerald green on her helmetb. Brilliant. While she glanced around and looked blindly upwards for her attacker, I ran, lunged and tackled her to the floor.

Carefully, while pinning her hands above her head, and the rest of her with myself, I removed her gun from her grasp and carelessly tossed it away.

"Now Ginny," I said in a would be casual voice. "Can you see what is wrong with this situation?"

Ginny, to her credit, despite being effectively trapped beneath me with no weapon, was characteristically cavalier.

"I should be on top."

She attempted to roll us over. I prevented this.

"That's incorrect, guess again," I replied coolly. In truth, I was beginning to wonder if I'd thought this idea through. Perhaps putting myself in such close proximity to Ginny hadn't been the best idea. Too late now.

"Luna, Daphne and Pansy should be here pelting you with paintballs?"

"Nope, I rather prefer it just the two of us. More private," did I imagine Ginny gulping? "Where are Pansy and Luna?"

"That information is classified."

"I'd like to stress that you are at my mercy."

"Pansy, Luna and Daphne went to attack Blaise."

"The poor guy."

"Quite," she agreed, while attempting to wriggle out of my grip. I swallowed a hiss, and attempted to stop her moving. When I'd devised this plan (about three seconds before executing it) I had anticipated less wriggling.

"The problem, with this situation, Ginny, is that I have pink paint on my head." I said, unwilling to waste any more time on banter. "Can you explain this curious phenomenon?"

"It's a secret."

"Then whisper it," I said, leaning down so her mouth was level with my ear, and I could feel her breath tickling me.

"It matches the grey in your eyes," she whispered and I was so caught up in listening to her heartbeat pulse through her, feeling her breath on my face, and her eyelashes brush my cheek, that I almost didn't hear her.

I did hear something else however. Something familiar and still entirely unwelcome.

"Oh dear," said Hermione, and I felt Ginny go rigid beneath me.

"Can't you just stay indoors?" I growled, releasing Ginny and getting to my feet, before giving her a hand to hers.

"Was he assaulting you Gin?" Asked Granger seriously.

"Yes," I answered promptly. "Please leave so I can continue doing so." Ginny bit back a smirk and shook her head mutely at the older girl, as her brother and Potter gawped.

"What were you doing?!" Ron exclaimed, looking horrified.

"I'd rather he didn't answer that," Potter cut in, looking slightly nauseous. "I'm fairly sure that train of thought leads only to madness."

"Oh merlin..my baby sister is dating the ferrett. Only the evilest, smarmiest, stupidest, blondest guy around. Why did you have to pick him Ginny? Why not someone nice, like Harry!"

"We're not dating!" I said hastily, with a nervous glance at Ginny who seemed to be mirroring my expression of horror.

"Harry, ask her out, quick," ordered Ron, Harry looked positively petrified.

"Ron," cut in Hermione. "Surely this isn't the way to-"

"Are you saying there's something wrong with my sister?"

"No! No, there's nothing wrong with her," he turned to Ginny. "There's nothing wrong with you! You're perfectly lovely-"

"Ron stop this, it's ridiculous," said Hermione in an exasperated tone.

"Very ridiculous," I said, causing everyone to swivel their attention back to me. "Seeing as Ginny isn't going to date Potter even if he asks pays her."

"Why not?" Asked Potter suddenly quite offended.

"You are dating, I knew it!" said Ron, simultaneously triumphant and appalled.

I was about to protest again, when Ginny cut in.

"Draco, I think we should tell him the truth."

I was momentarily nonplussed, but then I caught a pleading look in her eyes, and she squeezed my hand.

"Right, okay, you go ahead then," I said, attempting to go along with whatever it was she was doing.

"We are dating," she began.

"Yes we are- what?" I stalled as my mind caught up with my mouth. Ginny gave my hand a painful squeeze. "I mean. Yes. We are dating."

Hermione looked as though she could see through this whole thing, but Ron and Potter seemed completely taken in.

"Ginny! How could you?" Exclaimed Ron with with such vehemence that I took it as a personal insult. I wasn't that bad. Most girls would consider me something of a catch.

"Oh you know, you can't control love Ron," said Ginny in a dreamy voice.

"This would never have happened if you had asked her out last year instead of messing around with that Chang girl. We hardly see her nowdays! She's practically moved in with that git." He said, turning on Harry again.

"Don't be silly Ron, Harry couldn't have known," said Hermione.

"Yeah, it's not my fault! It's Lavender and Paravati that annoy her into staying away," Protested Harry.

I took advantage of their distraction to pull Ginny off into the bushes until we could no longer hear their annoying voices. Why did they always walk in on us when we were in compromising positions? Not that it had been that compromising. I mean, yes I'd had her pinned beneath me, completely at my mercy, but I wouldn't have done anything. Would I?

hellyesiwouldhave.

No, probably not.

We ran a little way, then started laughing too hard to keep running and stumbled until we reached the school. There was something about Ginny's laugh that made it impossible to maintain the high ground and keep an impassive expression. I was at least more sober than her (not a challenge) and she kept falling into me.

"Ginny,"I said, as we walked up the path. "We aren't really dating, are we?"

"Draco, if we were dating, you would know about it."

"That's logical." Is that a promise?

A pause.

"Ginny, is that bush moving?"

"No. Something behind the bush is moving. Four somethings, if I'm not mistaken."

She was not mistaken.

Daphne, Pansy, Luna and Blaise jumped out from behind the bush, all covered in pink and green paint, all sporting their weapons which were pointed at us, and wearing evil smirks. Even the Ravenclaw.

"Surrender?" I offered.

"Denied," said Blaise before they all started shooting.

Oh they're so going to pay.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Later that evening I accepted Ginny's plea to place a meal with the house elves, instead of eating with her brother and his friends who were probably still arguing that Potter should have asked Ginny out. Which if for some reason he did do, Ginny had solemnly promised she would let me punch him.

Ginny was lying on her back, one leg stretched out to the end of the bed, one bent at the knee, and considering the ceiling, as she liked to do. She said it was like a blank canvas on which she could clearly view her thoughts. The sky had not cleared, and it was a grey but bright day, with light spilling in through the small window in my room. I was lounging on my bed, reading a potions text in preparation for a challenging piece of homework Snape would assign later this week. Ginny had just had a shower, and was filling the room with a minty fresh smell, which was a result of her using my shampoo. She could have gone back to her dorm, but that would have made little sense as most of her clothes would be still here. She was always astonishing that everytime she took off a robe here, it would vanish when she later tried to find it, the reappear freshly laundered in my top drawer, a few days later. In the end, she decided that instead of trying to solve the mystery, she would do as fate clearly wanted and just put all her clothes into the drawer, which I considerately had cleared for her.

My potions text was rather dull. The essay was on poisonous potions, and Professor Snape had suggested that I focus on cures as well, for maximum marks. However, all I could get was that bezoars were pretty much the most useful in any kind of poisoning. I was idly making notes on a piece of parchment, and doodling snitches at the same time. I still sort of ached from the paintball fight this morning, and Ginny was absent mindedly humming, which was also quite distracting. Eventually I gave up the pretence of working and flung the book away from me, wincing as I heard it slam against the floor. Madame Pince would not be happy.

I glanced at Ginny. She was still lying down, head at the foot of her bed, laced ankles hooked at the head. One hand was splayed out on her ribs, and I vaguely wandered if I'd ever touch her with that relaxed familiarity. Her other hand played with the necklace around her neck, which I felt a surge of possessiveness when I realised it was the rose quartz pendant I'd bought her. Seeing her wearing it never failed to please me, in a way I knew it shouldn't.

"So, boyfriend of mine," Ginny said, and I raised my head off my pillow to look at her, although she kept her eyes on the ceiling. "Did this necklace cost much?"

"Some," I said, thinking about Eliza's sad look when she realised she couldn't afford it. I was sorry I hadn't been in the great hall to see her recieve it in the mail, but I'd over slept that morning. It had been pretty uncharacteristic for me..really, last year I'd have sneered and gone on my way, but I had the power to do something that someone would really value, and she'd given me some good advice. Besides, I'd liked her, I hadn't seen her since Hogsmede, however. I toyed with the idea of mentioned Eliza to Ginny, but there didn't seem to be any point, so I didn't.

Suddenly, another thought occurred to me.

"Girlfriend of mine," she smirked at the name. "Did we tell your brother that we are going out?"

"We did. I did."

"And it's common knowledge that you spend most nights here?"

"I suppose so."

"What is therefore to stop people from coming to the logical conclusion that you are doing more than sleeping?"

Ginny sat up and looked at me, a flush creeping along her neck.

"But, we're not- they wouldn't- that's crazy!"

"As are you," I pointed out.

There was a marked silence.

"Perhaps I'll go pay them a visit," She said, as though the idea had just occurred to her.

"Perhaps I'll accompany you," I suggested. Just in case.


	6. Oh, BURN!

Sorry it's been a while, but you know how it is. Thanks so much to my reviewers! I love getting the reviews, but you know what I love even more? Having little conversations with my reviewers, or going onto their profile pages and seeing that we have a favourite story in common.

Specific shout outs go to Mystamir and KitKat who reviewed every single chapter in one go. You guys rock. But so do my other reviewers. Particularly LNFPH4077, Peacethroughcoffee and SerpentQueen, who have been reading my other story, There was no where to rave. Did you know that PeaceThroughCoffee has to do her SAT?? Isn't that horrible? Hopefully this chapter will cheer her up.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my invisible cat

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A walk to the Gryffindor Common Room to preserve Ginny's virtue, was not how I had anticipated spending my evening, but, always the martyr, I did not mention that my potions essay wouldn't write itself, nor would Blaise's thumb be defeated without help from mine. I am a gracious sort.

The situation was amusing at least. As far as my talk with Eliza had revealed, the school was apparently assuming that Ginny and I were more than friends, but we'd confirmed it today, and they weren't to know it had been in jest. Ginny had been oddly quiet since we'd left the Slytherin Common, and kept shooting me nervous looks which I returned with what I thought was a reassuring smile. I can't be certain, I'm not in the habit of giving reassuring smiles.

I always hate leaving the Slytherin Common Room, perhaps because it's so familiar, but also because it's without a doubt the classiest part of the castle. Maybe I'm just biased against anything that's not green and silver, I think that's the worst part of house rivalries, it seriously limits your palette, and I'm not just talking about school. Take my house for an example. Malfoy Manor is a beautiful, tasteful house, but do you know the colour scheme in every damn room? It's green, and silver. There's a bit of black thrown in as well. Good for brooding, bad for dancing. Not that I dance. Malfoys don't dance.

I'm not sure what I was expecting. I mean, we'd sort of snuck out on Ginny's brother & Co, therefore I wasn't sure what they'd be thinking, how long it would take them to tie together "Ginny living with me" with "Ginny sleeping with me." And would they do it anyway? I wasn't officially living with Ginny, we hadn't mentioned it to anyone, seeing as her only close friend was Luna, and being a Ravenclaw not to mention insane, would mean that she'd not noticed Ginny's absences. We'd been avoiding all the Gryffindors like the plague since Ginny had started spending so much time with me, mainly because we knew what the reaction would be. Not to mention Lavender and Paravati had been making life in Gryffindor harder for Ginny. I suggested she asked Dumbledore if she could move houses, but she threw Eugene at me.

I was planning the scene out in my head. We'd storm into the Gryffindor Common Room and claim that their theories were false. No, that wouldn't work. Firstly they might have not even jumped to any conclusions. And also, I couldn't really go in the Gryffindor Common Room. I wasn't afraid of the Gryffindorks of course, but it would just be foolhardy. I consoled myself with the thought that even if Ginny hadn't declared we were dating, Paravati and Lavender had already started pointing out that she wasn't spending nights in her dorm, but these rumours seemed to not have reached her brother, thankfully.

We reached the end of a corridor, and turned the corner sharply, ploughing straight into an unsuspecting student.

"Watch where yo-" I started, before trailing off when I recognised the face. "Eliza. Hi."

Eliza picked up her bag, which she appeared to have dropped when Ginny and I ran into her and smiled at me, then at Ginny.

"Draco, and Ginny, hello," she said, shouldering her bag. "Taking up careers in demolition?"

We stared at her. Well I did, I wasn't looking at Ginny so I'm not sure what Ginny was doing.

"That was sarcasm," Eliza explained. "Sometimes used in conversations to demonstrate quick wit and humour? Anything? No? Nothing. Right. What brings you to these parts?"

"We're just on the way to the Gryffindor common room," I explained.

"Nothing to do with a certain rumour that's had Harry Potter and Chums storming through the corridors?"

"There's a rumour already?" Ginny asked in a pained voice.

"Oh yes," said Eliza, with a suggestive arch of her eyebrows that reminded me of Pansy for a second.

"What are they saying?" I asked.

"Oh, only that you and Ginny are sleeping together," said Eliza, rolling her eyes as though the idea was ludicrous. This amused me, for some reason. "The whole school knows, by the way, although it might have slipped by Luna Lovegood..."

"Ye Gods...the entire school..." Ginny trailed off. "No one pays me the slightest bit of attention for the first half of my life, and now suddenly, when there's evidence of a scandal they're all ears! I blame you," she said, looking at me.

"Don't worry, Harry Potter and Co are denouncing it everywhere, I wish I could say the same for your friends," Eliza added at me. It suddenly occurred to me that neither Pansy, Blaise or Daphne had been in the common room when we'd left.

"And they're doing what?" Asked Ginny in a suspicious voice.

"Telling everyone they meet that they caught you necking at the back of the Quidditch Pitch," said Eliza in a no nonsense sort of tone.

"Right, murder, anyone?" I suggested in a pleasant voice.

"No one who has spoken to you about it believes them though," Eliza pointed out.

"So you, and Snape, that would be?" I said. Ginny gave me a strange look at this point, which I ignored.

"So let me get this straight, Harry, Ron and Hermione are telling everyone that it's not true, Daphne, Blaise and Pansy are telling everyone we're involved but not sleeping together, So who's spreading the rumour that we're sleeping together?"

"If you can't figure that out, you should go back to first year," said Eliza. "Lovely chatting, but I've got a delightful potions essay that wont write itself, good luck. Oh, and Draco?" I looked round as she walked past, and I noticed she was wearing the necklace I'd sent. "Thank you."

She disappeared around a corner and Ginny and I walked on in silence, digesting what we'd discovered.

"Draco," started Ginny, after a few moments. However, her speech was interupted by the sound of several raised voices coming from the staircase. We glanced towards it, simultaneously recognising the voices.

"No I'm telling you, they were all over each other!"

"Ginny wouldn't do anything like that!"

"Everyone knows they're sleeping together."

"She spends every night in his room!"

"Why are you so malicious?"

"You could practically cut the tension with a knife."

"It's quite romantic when you think about it."

Walking up the stairs, arguing amongst themselves and all proclaiming different things in raised voices that echoed to us were the Golden Trio, Pansy, Blaise and Daphne, Lavender and Paravati and Luna Lovegood who looked bemused.

They all stopped in a bundle at the top of the stairs when they saw Ginny and I, and went silent. Luna gave us a little wave. Paravati and Lavender looked self righteous.

"Oh hi guys," said Ginny in an overly carefree tone. "Draco and I were just off to neck behind the quidditch pitch, then we thought we'd go back to his dorm and get it on." She ended her little speech in a deathly dark tone, her eyes narrowed. Pansy and Blaise had the decency to look sheepish. Daphne gave an apologetic shrug.

"Gin, we didn't believe that stuff," said Ron, and Hermione and Harry nodded in agreement.

"Well, we didn't believe the sleeping stuff," amended Hermione. "We weren't sure about what those three were saying, you are after all, sleeping in the same room and dating." She waved towards my friends who offered her a sarcastic salute.

"Thank you, it's nice to know that some people don't believe that I'm a crazy, lust ridden girl."

"We don't think that either Gin, just that you're crazy," said Blaise helpfully.

"Even if you were, we'd hardly blame you, Draco is something of a catch," added Daphne. I smiled at her.

"Look, Gin, you seem to like him, goodness knows why, but we accept that. We could do without the graphic descriptions offered by that lot," Ron gestured at Pansy who looked affronted. "But it's your happiness we care about."

Ginny offered her brother a huge smile which he returned and I nearly threw up in the face of such a heart warming moment. Pansy, Daphne and Blaise seemed to share the sentiment.

"You know what Ron, that's good enough for me," said Ginny before turning her gaze to Pavarati and Lavender who had been silent throughout the conversation. "And if some people are bored by their own lives that they have to spread rumours and criticise the lives of others, I suggest they they keep their vicious lies to themselves."

"Oh burn," said Luna, wandering off down the stairs.

Finished with her monologue, Ginny smirked at me and we walked off, followed by Daphne, Pansy and Blaise. I heard Hermione say something to Ginny's brother, but we didn't look back, just carried on towards the Slytherin Common Room. I felt immensly proud of Ginny for standing up for herself, generally she hid in the shadows and turned the other cheek, but today she'd come into her own, and it had been brilliant. I also felt a grudging respect towards the trio, that was friendship, I assumed.

"Maybe I should do something for them...like make a point of spending Sundays with them," Ginny said, happily babbling away. I zoned out a little and just listened to her voice which was pleasant as always. "What was with 'necking on the quidditch pitch?'" Asked Ginny, turning to Blaise

"That wasn't you?" Asked Pansy in an innocent voice. "You know, now I come to think of it, it must have been us!" I shook my head at her shamelessness.

"So Draco, what's this I hear about you and Red being a couple?" Asked Blaise, slinging an arm around my shoulder.

"It's a ruse so her brother will stop giving her a hard time about not dating Potter," I explained.

"So you two are still "just friends"?" asked Pansy incredulously.

"Yes Pans, it is actually possible for a girl and a guy to be friends and not spend every minute of the day necking, as you so eloquently put it."

"Obviously, we're friends and we hardly go beyond platonic these days," said Pansy, causing Blaise to prod her. "But we don't spend every second together, neither do we sleep in the same bedroom."

"Or so they claim, not sure how much sleeping is going on," added Daphne.

"Just because you two can't get your heads out of the gutter for ten seconds, don't pull Ginny and I down with you," I said, grabbing Ginny by the waist and pulled her into me.

"Whatever you say Malfoy," said Blaise with a "you-can-lie-to-yourself-if-you-like" look, and turning to Daphne. "Okay Daphne spill, were you, or were you not checking out Mr Harry Potter?"

I choked on air and looked at Daphne incredulously, along with Pansy. Daphne just raised her eyebrows suggestively and flicked her hair.

"Ooh, I almost feel sorry for him," muttered Blaise. "She'll chew him up and spit him out."

"It's the Slytherin way," smirked Daphne.

It was only much later, as I recommenced taking notes from my potions text while Ginny sat brushing her hair, after the sun had disappeared, leaving the sky an other worldly purple that Ginny asked how I knew Eliza.

"A friend," I said, and it was true.

"She had the same necklace as me," Ginny said, absent mindedly holding the pendant.

"Yes, that's how I met her, she was looking at that while I was buying yours," I said, neglecting to add that she'd not purchased the necklace in question.

It's not a lie if you don't say it.

* * *

I feel obliged to say thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing and being so nice. Because you're all going to kill me when I put up the next chapter. 


	7. Eliza

Hi everyone. I know it's not been a long time since the last update, but apparently it was a long time before that, and I've been writing a lot. And everyone's been asking WHY you're going to kill me, so here it is! The spacing is a bit funky for unknown reasons.

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_Dear Mother, I am very well thank you, better than ever, you might say. Apparently father's been asking about me from __Professor Snape__, well, I hope it wont shock him too much to find I've been straying away from the beaten Slytherin path of being overly haughty and chasing dark magic as though it's my only refuge. Didn't seem like a great idea. I'm sure you wont mind, you'll probably be happy that I'm keeping myself out of trouble, what was it you used to say; "Nothing is more important than my son being happy?" Well I am, I'm truly happy. The specifics might cause you some dismay, but in the end, it boils down to me choosing my own path, and finding my own happiness. Perhaps you should think about finding yours? _

_Father's been in Azkaban for over a year now, and I know how empty the manor must seem. No, I do not mean that I am going to have a tutor and stay at home, my place is at Hogwarts, but yours needn't be trapped in your incarcerated husband's house. Coincidentally, I've been speaking to Severus about his student life, and something about you came up. I'm not sure the specifics (he was very vague) but he speaks very fondly of you. Perhaps it might be nice for you to join us at school one evening for dinner? He's particularly proficient in the kitchen. I know you two were friends and you might enjoy catching up. I will of course be able to give you a full recount of my studies and bring you up to date. Do say you'll come, I've arranged for next Wednesday at six, __Professor Snape__ prepared the enclosed portkey which will activate at five fifty five. _

_Hoping to see you then, _

_Draco_

It was nothing short of a work of art. Ginny and I had hatched a plan in between her writing to her brothers something she was doing more and more often these days, so that at five fifty-five on Wednesday that we would realise that Ginny had had a charms essay due the following morning and would have to beg off dinner, leaving Snape and my mother to become reacquainted. I had claimed I needed the portkey to arrange a meeting with mother, not mentioning that he would be included, and now attached the silver quill to the letter. I knew I was in Slytherin for a reason. Ginny was asleep when I'd left. She'd had a nightmare previously and I'd awoken to her muttering and crying out. When I finally woke her up, she nearly clawed at my face before realising who I was, and settling back down, with a sheepish apology. I therefore decided to let her sleep, while I took a trip to the owlery to send mother my letter.

Although the letter was rather underhanded of me, it was through a genuine concern for my mother. She was a society wife, and with her husband in prison, I expected she'd be rather society-less. It was quite early, and the air was cool as I walked up to the owlery, while the rest of the school slept, I supposed I was the only student awake, or at least out of my dormitory, so it came as a surprise when I entered the owlery to find someone else there. I knew, because I could hear breathing, heavy and erratic, coupled with gasping sobs that seemed to be swallowed before they could quite break free. For a moment I thought about leaving, but the person had already realised I'd entered, and scrambled to their feet to stand by the window. It was dark in the owlery, but they stepped forwards into a shaft of light that came through a narrow window and I recognised the face.

"Eliza?" There was a pause, and I saw recognition in her eyes. I took in her distressed appearance; wrinkled robes, puffy eyes, tear stained cheeks, mussed hair and couldn't stop myself from taking a step towards her. A vision suddenly assaulted my mind, unbidden, of Ginny sitting in the same place Eliza now stood, red hair fanned out around her face, like a halo, eyes animated and fingers moving rapidly in a mess of wool, as she explained to me why owls needed jumpers. An image from months ago, in stark contrast to the one I was now confronted with. And then it was gone, replaced with Eliza, hastily rubbing at her moist eyes and smoothing down her robes in an attempt to look respectable.

She moved to brush a hand through the knots in her hair, but stopped as she realised what a mess it was, and dropped her hand in a hopeless gesture.

"Are you okay?" The question was unnecessary, but inevitable. In the half light slanting harshly across her face she looked like a ghost. There were bags under her eyes, that I could never remember seeing before, a bruised raw colour that gave her features arches and angles that had never been there previously. It was bizarre, seeing her this way. She was always so self assured, slightly amused as though in on a joke that I didn't understand.

"Oh, it's nothing," she said, swallowing hard and putting on a faux smile that hardly reached her lips. She waved a few pieces of parchement in an envelope that she clutched towards me, and I saw that it was covered in hastily written script, sporadically blotched from her tears. "My grandmother died."

In two steps I was infront of her before realising. I didn't know what to do, should I hug her? Pat her on the back? Tell her that I was sorry? My arms hung useless at my sides, and my mouth was suddenly dry. Slytherins were useless in times of grief. Or was it just Malfoys?

"Yesterday it happened. Mother says it was peaceful, but-" here, she lost the matter of fact persona she'd shoddily put up, and a few tears slipped down her face, and pooled in the hollow of her neck. I fumbled in a pocket and pulled out a pristine white hanker-chief and handed it to her. She took it gratefully, staring at it for a moment as though she wasn't sure how it should be used, then scrubbing at her eyes with it. I wanted to stop her, slow down her harsh movements, but it wasn't my place. Instead I watched with pity in my eyes as she finished, blinked and passed me the now damp white square back. Pity was a strange emotion for me to feel, and it swelled painfully in my chest.

"You keep it," I said, and she offered mea watery smile, before folding it into her pocket, passing a finger over the embroidered D.M. that my mother had added.

"Thank you," she said quietly, her voice thick with emotion. "For the necklace as well."

"It was nothing."

"To you, maybe." She turned abruptly to the window, looking out at the grounds, the mountains and the sky of Hogwarts, letting the clear breeze thread through her hair, dry the tears on her face, and cleanse her, as she breathed it deeply.

"I'll be leaving tonight," she said after a few minutes of companionable silence. Her voice was unexpectedly clear, not catching in her throat, perhaps she'd cried all she could. I wondered if she'd been there, sitting alone in the drafty corner of the owlery, with nothing for company but the soft hooting and shuffling of owls all night long.

"Leaving Hogwarts?" I wondered out loud.

"My mother is a single parent. Her mother was everything to her, she needs me," Eliza said, with a distant look in her eyes, she had serious grey ones, I noticed, like a cloaked sky.

How brave, I thought. To leave this safe and certain place, to enter the real world, a world where someone wasn't always looking out for you, and where you future was not as clear as your past. Where you weren't protected from the harsh realities.

"Will you return?"

"Probably not. I want to be a journalist and you don't need NEWTs for that. I've an internship with the Daily Prophet this summer, irrespective of my grades." I leaned on the window ledge next to her, contemplating this. "I probably wont see you again then," I said, and she leaned out of the window, hands braced on the stone ledge, next to mine.

"Probably not. Have you asked Ginny out yet?"

"No, although I'm sure you'll say I should have," I said, levelling a glance at her and ignoring the abrupt nature of the question.

"You're right, you should have. But I'm glad you haven't," she said, before meeting my gaze with her own, turned slate by the light coming in. "There was something I wanted to do before you did."

I opened my mouth to ask what, but she closed the distance between us, and pressed her lips to mine, in a chaste kiss, that was warm and soft and had me closing my eyes before my mind was aware of the action. I heard a soft clutter, as the parchment she'd been holding dropped to the floor but it was so peripheral, so irrelevant, that I ignored it completely. After a few long moments, while the breeze chilled our skin and our breathing became haggard, I tried to thread my hands into her hair, and pull her closer, but she drew away with a ragged breath and a shy smile.

"Sorry," she said, in answer to my questioning eyes and pulled away from me, leaving my arms empty. She stooped to pick up the letter she'd dropped, and her bag, which had been hidden in a dusty corner. She shouldered it, walked towards the door  
and reached for the handle, but dropped her hand and turned to me, with a confident, determined look on her face. "Ask her, she'll say yes. And thank you. Again... for everything." It took me a few moments to gather what she'd said, and what she'd been referring to. By the time I'd figured it out, she'd gone, and the door had swung shut behind her.

I left without sending my letter, and had to return after dinner to do the same.

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Please don't kill me! 


	8. The Wizard, The Witch and the Wardrobe

Hurrah! Hardly any death threats! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. An advance warning, I'm doing National Novel Writing Month, so I'm going to be completely unavailable to update in November. So they'll probably be an update just before November. Also, I have NOT A CLUE where this story is going. Not. A. Clue. Maybe I should just fall back on the age old tradition of Ginny-gets-in-trouble-Draco-saves-her-they-kiss-the-end kind of ending? Well, you know, suggestions welcome. Tell me what you THINK will happen, and maybe it'll spark my thought processes.

Also. There is something going on. I mean, plotwise. There is something. It was in the last chapter I do believe, and in this chapter. Something is a bit off, and you'll find out what next chapter, but do tell me if you think you know what it is.

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I didn't see Eliza leave, although I imagined it, while sitting in the common room, watching the fire dance in the grate. I was upset, a little. It wasn't so much that we'd been great friends, we hadn't, barely spoken to one another, but I suppose that we hadn't needed that. It had just been so easy, talking to her, being with her. Kissing her, if I'm being honest. I don' t know what that makes me, but I do know that it's not every day you find someone that you can be so very much yourself around, and you should count yourself lucky if you ever do. To me, it felt like an opportunity missed. I couldn't believe that we'd been going to the same school for so long and that it had taken me so many years to notice her. I was even angry with her for not approaching me, even if I knew it was unreasonable.

But I couldn't brood. Partly because I couldn't explain to anyone why I was upset. And partly because through all of this, I was almost always around Ginny. I hadn't told her, I'd mentioned that Eliza was leaving, but I hadn't said anything else. Why would I have? If Ginny noticed anything odd about my behaviour, the way I spoke about it and the way I changed the subject, she didn't mention it to me, and for that I was grateful. Without Ginny, I would have probably been somewhat depressed. With Ginny around, being depressed wasn't an option. She was so vibrant, so full of energy, so completely joyful about every mundane little thing. The fact that we were living together, and I woke up to her with knotty hair and flannel pajamas, brushed my teeth standing next to her, put up with a running commentary on absolutely everything, from the way my hair was looking at the back, to the bathroom tiles while I shaved. If anything, loosing Eliza made me appreciate what I had with Ginny. How often did you find this idealic setup? Two people who want nothing more than to be with each other as often as possible, are granted this, for the foreseeable future. Every day I could think that there were a dozen more days like this spread out ahead of me. For the first time, I could look at my future with true anticipation, because each day was with Ginny. We did fight, of course. One of the biggest, was about make up, of all things.

It began, as usual, because I had discovered something that made me uncomfortable, and put me on edge. My discovery was that I was captivated by completely innocent portions of Ginny's anatomy. The smooth slope of her shoulder, the line of her collar bone, I even began to find her ankles attractive which was just too much for me. Especially because my mind knew that there were far more beautiful girls around, at Hogwarts, and in the world at large. And yet, my thoughts were continually pulled back to Ginny. It was pathetic, really.

The argument started when I walked in on her trying to use a cosmetic charm to darken her hair. Darken her hair. She was trying to turn it brown. I wish I could convey just how furious this made me, and I'm somewhat ashamed, as ashamed as Malfoys can be, when I recollect it. The whole situation was made much worse by the fact that the dressing table she was standing at was littered with makeup, little tubes and sticks and pots with applicators and pads and it was all I could do to stop myself from throwing the whole lot out of the window. I just couldn't believe that my Ginny, the one with confidence oozing out of every pore, wanted to change her appearance. Didn't she understand that it was a part of her? Every little detail, from the ridiculous amount of freckles to the warning light hair. She couldn't just CHANGE it. Perhaps I didn't handle the situation particularly tactfully, in fact, I suppose I threw something of a tantrum, and yelled quite a lot. She just didn't seem to understand, just stood there, frozen, a tube of something or other in her hand, her hair coaxed into a ridiculous position doubtlessly with a dozen charms on it, and her eyes wide as though I was the crazy one. After a few minutes of my mindless ranting, I can't remember what I was saying, but I think I forbid her from ever wearing makeup again, she started to get angry and threw a few comments of her own, which would have been extremely hurtful, had her rage not caused her hair style to fall lopsided and make her look generally ridiculous. I started laughing a bit which really didn't improve her mood, and eventually she just stormed out of the room, leaving me to laugh until I ran out of laughter, and then felt depressed. Later, I found her charming all the torches that lit the halls to burn with multi-coloured lights, and apologised, but I didn't see the cosmetics again for a while, and I knew better than to bring it up.

"Ginny?"

"Draco."

"Nothing."

I took a deep breath.

"Ginny?"

"Draco?"

"Will you stop doing that?" I snapped, stopping my pacing and glaring at her. She looked up from the bed where she had been idly sending up silver sparks from her wand and watching them fizzle into nothing.

"Stop what?"

"Answering me like that," the irritation was plain in my voice.

"I will if you spit it out." She sounded so unconcerned it wasn't fair. I was supposed to be the calm and collected one. I felt like throwing things.

"Today," I managed to get out before my jaw locked. I tried again. "Today, mother is coming up to Hogwarts."

Ginny put away her wand and sat, cross legged on the bed, looking at me attentively, something she'd been doing more and more of late. I appreciate the gesture and sat down, rubbing the back of my neck awkwardly, before pulling my hand away at the uncouth gesture.

"Your mother is coming to Hogwarts," Ginny prompted. She knew about this of course, having helped me to formulate the plan of getting Snape and my mother together. I wouldn't be having this conversation with anyone except Ginny, and even with her I was having trouble. It was just difficult to open up to this level.

"And we're setting her up with Snape."

"We are indeed."

"I'm just..." I took a deep breath and thought about what I wanted to say, no more stupid stuttering and fumbling around with words. "I'm unsure of how it will go."

Ginny nodded and frowned a little, a strange expression for her usually carefree face, but I was touched that she cared so much about my concerns.

"What are you worried about?" I wanted to retort angrily that I wasn't worried about anything, and sweep out of the room as though this conversation hadn't happened. But I didn't. Because I needed to talk to someone.

"Ginny...we're setting my mother up. With Professor Snape."

"Well he was the obvious choice...regardless of personal hygiene and rudeness. You said he had a history with your mother."

"But I've no idea what kind. For all I know, they were arch enemies."

"Hardly, Snape has enough arch enemies to be getting on with." I gave a nervous chuckle, and then quelled the sound, resisting the urge to get up and start pacing again. I checked my watch for the umpteenth time. Ten minutes to go. Ten minutes before mother appeared, I took her down to meet Snape and then due to coincidental circumstances had to make an early exit. I sighed to myself, defeated. I couldn't get the words out.

"Nevermind," I murmured into my hands.

"Or we could."

"Could what?"

"Mind."

"Pardon?"

"The way I see it, when you decided to set your mother up with Snape you didn't think it through properly. And now it's just hit you that your mother is in actual fact married to your father, who is really rather scary. On top of that, you realise that you don't know how your mother feels about Snape or vice versa, and are concerned that this evening will turn into a sticky situation." Ginny sat on my bed next to me, one leg folded under her.

"I suppose that about sums it up," I said in a would be optimistic voice. Ginny shifted to face me, playing with the sleeve on my robe, of all things. A strand of her curly hair brushed my ear and I nearly shivered.

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"Nothing. I decided to do this, and I don't want to back out now," I sounded determined.

"Hm." Ginny dropped my sleeve and moved again, leaning against me. She was far too bony, I could feel her hip bone poking me, but I didn't say anything, because she was soft too, and warm, and smelt of my shampoo.

"Ginny."

"Draco."

"Will you come with me?" How difficult it was to form the words.

"Of course." And how easy for her.

It was quiet and dark for a while. The moment was ruined by an owl tapping at the window. Ginny swiftly rose, and I sighed at the cool air that took her place at my side. She looked almost graceful before she walked into the corner of her bed and hissed with pain, before grinning sheepishly at me.

"What is it?" I asked as she untied the letter from the owl. Her browns eyes scanned it, and her expression was unreadable for a second. Then she smiled lightly.

"Nothing, just a letter from one of my brothers." I thought about guessing which one, but I didn't feel like playing that game. As much as I tried to separate them for Ginny's sake, in my head they all merged into one. I nodded and went to the door. Ginny put on her shoes and joined me. We met mother at the school gates, she was flawless as usual, black robes with blue and silver trimmings, shoes with diamonds set in the heels. Hair pulled into a sleek bun.

"You're looking skinny," was the first thing she said to me. Charming mother. You'd have thought she wanted a fat son. As though I could be anything but skinny with her and father for parents.

"And you look beautiful," was the first thing I said to her, taking her arm. Ginny hung back until I called her forwards.

"This is Ginny," I said to mother, who was absently fiddling with a white gold bracelet that she was wearing.

"A pleasure," she said, glancing at Ginny. Her eyes widened marginally, no doubt taking in the ink blots on her hands, the freckles, the mess of hair."Draco?"

"Mother?"

"Explain."

"She makes me happy." A mother can never resist the thrall of a contented son. Even so, mother glared at Ginny. Ginny smiled back, in an oblivious way. Mother swallowed. Ginny blinked.

"Shall we go?"

"This isn't over."

"I'd be disappointed if it were."There's no one in the world like mother.

At Professor Snape's rooms, I knocked politely, after a pointed look at Ginny, who quickly turned mother aside and started to query what sort of jewellery she should wear, to prevent it clashing with her hair. Perfect.

Snape opened the door, looking bat like. And thank god, his robes weren't covered in newt saliva or any other unmentionable thing. What with not telling him that he had a date with my mother, he might not have dressed up. He looked at me, at my mother, at Ginny.

"You can thank me later," I said, with an insincere smile. His eyes narrowed. Then widened in horror.

"You haven't."

"Believe me, I have."

He swallowed and to my intense satisfaction looked down at his clothes, which he apparently deemed appropriate. Yeah, okay, they were black as usual. But it could have been worse. Think canary yellow bell bottoms.

"Relax, it's all organised. The food will be up in a few minutes. I ordered it specially. It's her favourite, maple salmon with scottish pesto."

"Caviar?" He asked hopefully. I could hear mother instructing on the subtle uses of saphires.

"No caviar," I said firmly.

"Are we going in?" my mother said, her voice sounded like wind chimes.

"We are," I said loudly. Snape didn't move. I gestured for him to step to the side, he did so, reluctantly. I smiled broadly and stepped inside, followed by Ginny, followed by mother. Luckily, Snape gave as good as he got and suavely offered to take my mother's coat. The butterflies in my stomach subsided slightly, and then increased as I took in Snape's room. Mother was still busy removing her coat, so with a quick glance at Ginny, we set about vanishing some of the papers that littered his desk, conjuring a table cloth, candles and four places and generally tidying away. Ginny thought to scent the air with old spice. Girls always think of things like that.

"Oh this is lovely," said mother, walking in the room. Snape took in the new surroundings without blinking and instead stepped forwards to draw mother a chair, while I coaxed the fire a little higher, to prevent the arctic conditions that persevered in the dungeons all year round.

There was a knock at the door and I went to get it, Ginny acting my silent shadow for once. To no surprise, it was a house elf with the food, which I wheeled in and set out on the table.

"Professor Snape ordered your favourite, maple salmon with scottish pesto," I announced to mother, who smiled graciously, looking more and more like a marble statue.

I was just drawing back Ginny's seat, and I noticed the look that Snape gave me as I did so but chose to ignore it, when Ginny's eyes went very wide.

"Oh! Draco!"

"Ginny?"

"I've just remembered that I have a charms essay due tomorrow!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"You'll have to go and do it!"

"I'll never finish it tonight..." Ginny sighed dramatically. I frowned in mock thought and waited for mother to suggest the obvious.

"Why don't you help her Draco? You're very good at charms." What a good idea, mother!

"Okay then, we'll see you back in a few hours, if we're done by then," I said, offering Snape a cheery wave and walking towards the door with Ginny. Obviously we didn't go through. As soon as we were out of view, Ginny threw her cloak around us both, I used a nifty bit of wandless magic to make the fire spark and divert their attention while we both climbed into the large wardrobe. Yes, that wardrobe. Right up next to the yellow bellbottoms. And it was completely undetected. We pulled the door almost shut, so that we could hear, and I charmed the doors to be like a window on our side, but unchanged on the other. See, I am good at charms. Then we settled down to watch the show.

To begin with, nothing happened. That is to say that mother flirted subtly, the salmon was delicious and they discussed very little outside of school work. And then they started on the wine, and the whole thing became far more interesting.

"Is your mother playing footsie with Professor Snape?" hissed Ginny. I immediately glued my eyes above the table.

"I don't know and I don't want to know," I whispered firmly.

The wine threatened to run out so I pushed my wand through the doors and performed a simple refilling charm, grateful for all the practise of non-verbal spells that Pansy had forced me to do last year. It was weird to think of last year, Pansy threatening to suspend our friends with benefits status to just friends, if I didn't learn how to do a spell silently. A world away. A lifetime.

"Do you ever think about the past?" My mother's voice was muffled through the wood, but even I could hear the longing.

"Sometimes," Professor Snape's voice is low and unreadable, but rougher than I've ever heard it.

"I'm old, Severus."

"Never."

"Liar."

"It's true. You'll never get old. Only more and more beautiful. Untouchable."

"Is that what you think?"

"I always have."

"We both know that's not true." There was a certain look in my mother's eye. One that I'd never seen.

"If you're referring to our last night at Hogwarts.."

"Of course I am."

"I'm sorry. It was unforgivable."

A pause.

"I forgive you," she breathed and lent across the table. I closed my eyes and cancelled the charm. When I opened them, I was sitting in the dark wardrobe with Ginny leaning against me, asleep. That was that then. There was just a flaw in my master plan. How to get out?

I put a silencing charm on the wardrobe and sat with my thoughts, about Ginny, and Eliza and myself, and at some point between thinking so much it made me dizzy, and the soft sighs that Ginny made as she slept, sleep found me.

The next morning, we woke at the noise of Snape closing the door and all but tumbled out of the wardrobe onto the floor, only having enough time to run to our lessons. And if anyone noticed that we were wearing the same clothes as yesterday which were crumpled and creased, and we were exhausted all day and kept stretching, trying to get the cricks out from our muscles, then the assumptions they jumped to were all very, very far from the truth.

* * *

Aww, nice chapter, I used too much conversation, but oh well, I've been reading too many drabbles. If you don't know what happened between Snape and Narcissa by now...well maybe I've been too subtle. I'm not sure if I want to tell you, it's kinda personal :P But I don't think it's going to come into the story either...So if you're dying to know, pm me and I'll tell.

Review? Please?


	9. Betrayal

Hey guys, guess what? This is the last chapter! I know! I'm as surprised as you are! I just decided that it was going on for too long, getting all dragged out etc. Also, I didn't want to feel guilty about not updating. They'll likely be an epilogue, and maybe even another sequel, but not for a few months. So I hope you enjoy. I've really enjoyed writing this. I like it, because it's funny (I hope) but it's also...well there's substance (again, i hope.)

No one worked out what was going on, but here it is, it's resolved!

Okay, enough rambling, here's the chapter:

* * *

"Letters? I haven't had any letters."

"So you say."

"It's true."

"Well then someone, is lying."

Snape had been ridiculously cheery these last few weeks. Not taking half as many points, brushing his hair, and once, I saw him smile. I took this as evidence that mother was having a good influence. As to the extent of their relationship, I didn't know and I didn't particularly care. I was just happy that mother was no longer wilting away in the manor. Really, life had been quite idyllic for the past few weeks. Ginny had been corresponding regularly with her brothers, I had been beating Blaise with thumb wars. The whole gang and Luna Lovegood had indulged in a mission that involved threatening the house elves with clothes until they gave us a giant jelly shaped like Ginny's head. I'm not sure why we did that actually.

Until this.

"Maybe the owls simply got lost."

"Since when do owls get lost?"

"All the time!"

"Not Ministry owls. And not fifteen of them."

"There have been fifteen letters?" The doubt began to creep in.

"Fifteen. None of which have found their way to you. You claim."

"It's true."

"So who's lying?" I clenched my jaw and thought. Fifteen letters from my father to me. Not one of them arrived at Hogwarts although all left Azkaban. All intercepted somehow.

"What does the one to you say?"

"It's asking you to visit." Oh how jolly. A nice day out to Azkaban.

"So whoever's been stopping the letters obviously doesn't want me to go."

"And they're not particularly adept. They didn't think to intercept my letters. Or they couldn't."

"Father thinks I've been ignoring him?"

"Can you blame him?"

"Would you blame me if I had."

"No. But you say you haven't."

"I haven't." My eyes glazed over the jars on the shelves behind him, full of things that make my stomach turn.

"Do you know who it is?"

"We both do. There's only one person it could have been."

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." It was true. A betrayal of trust is hard to deal with. I'd never experienced it before, and I didn't know if I should confront it. But I left Snape to his own designs. It was for me to sort out.

Back in my room, Ginny was sitting at my desk with a piece of parchment and text books out, on the pretence of working, but was actually trying to enchant my mirror, a task she'd been at for days.

"All it does is insult me," Ginny complained as I entered.

"With hair like that you can hardly blame me," the mirror retorted. I silenced it with a charm, not in the mood.

"I could have done that," said Ginny with a frown at me.

"I'm sure you could," I muttered darkly. "Any letters from your brothers?" Ginny glanced up and me and then back to her work, picking up her quill and reinking it.

"One. I'll reply to it later."

"Will you?"

"Yes. It was Charlie, saying that the dragon egg he got from Tanzania hatched."

"I thought you said it hatched last month." My tone was cool, detached.

"Did I? I must have been confused," Ginny laughed so confidently I wouldn't have been at all suspicious if I hadn't earlier spoken to Snape.

"Or maybe, maybe you've been lying this whole time," my voice rose from a murmur to a near shout.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Now her voice began to waver. She attempted to carry on writing but with a flick of my wand, I summoned her quill.

"I need that."

"I'm talking to you." I finally had my voice under control again.

"I'm working."

"Not any more you're not."

"What's wrong with you?" Definite hostility now.

"I want to know why the person I trust the most in the world, the person who I let sleep in the same room as me, the person I'm looking at right now, has betrayed my trust." She said nothing, and her silence was like a confession.

"You've been taking my letters." Still nothing. "And telling me they were from your brothers. And I, like a fool, believed you."

"You had no reason not to," her expression was dull.

"How could you? Betray me like that?"

"You betrayed me first."

"I didn't."

"Oh no?" Her tone was sardonic. "So you didn't kiss Eliza in the Owlery?" I inhaled sharply.

"How-?"

"You didn't know I was there," she said bitterly. "I knew that you were sending the letter to your mum, and I thought you might want some support, so I followed you up to the owlery and when I got there, you had your tongue down Eliza's throat."

"Don't be crude, Ginny."

"Although I suppose that's not a betrayal is it. We're not even together. Not really. You made that pretty clear."

"This isn't about us," I tried to regain control of the conversation. "This is about my father. He's rotting away in there, trying to contact me, while we set his wife up with our potions master!"

"Good!" Yelled Ginny, jumping up, the ink bottle she'd been using fell to the floor and stained the carpet. "Good, I'm glad. I knew this whole time while we were match making that he was alone. And I hope he thought you had abandoned him, and his wife had abandoned him, and that he would rot in there for the rest of this life!"

"How could you?!" How could someone like her, so pure, so good, hold so much hatred?

"Because he gave me the diary," she spat out. "He nearly killed me, and it makes me so happy to know that he might right now be feeling one OUNCE of the pain I felt sitting in the chamber, feeling my life ebb away, and knowing that no one was coming, and I was going to die alone."

"H-he gave you the diary?" I stuttered for the first time in this conversation.

"Yes. Slipped it into my books the summer before first year. A funny joke to play on Arthur Weasley's youngest. Didn't stop to think it would probably kill me. Didn't wonder what unleashing part of the Dark Lord's soul on a eleven year old child would do. And I know he never gave me a thought, even when he found out he'd nearly killed me. Why should he? He's a cold blooded murderer and he deserves everything he gets." She left the room, slamming the door.

I sat brooding in the Common Room, a habit that was so old, I could fall back on it whenever I needed to. From the first time Potter refused my friendship, to loosing quidditch match after match, to now, brooding was always safe. And comforting. As comforting as stewing in your own guilt can be.

I became aware of french perfume and movement in the chair next to me, but didn't say anything as Pansy sat down and pulled out a nail file, beginning to file her nails.

"Spit it out, Parkinson," I said finally, unable to concentrate.

"Do you ever think about the past, Draco?"

"Sometimes."

"I do. It was like every day, we were getting closer to something."

"To what?"

"To being our parents? To power and money." Was it longing in her voice?

"And now?"

"Now it's like we're falling. Free falling from somewhere really high and we don't know where we'll end up."

"Do you hate it?"

"It's exhilarating. It's like living." She paused. "Do you remember when we used to dance?"

"Our parents made us."

"I was so nervous. I wanted to marry you the second I saw you and I was terrified you wouldn't like me. But you just said 'My mother grows pansies.' and took my hand."

"And you said 'she didn't grow me," and put your arm around my neck," I said, smiling at the memory.

"We'd end up outside, spinning around in the grass while the adults talked secrets."

"We used to call them that. Secrets."

"Better than Death Eater Meetings."

"I guess that's what they were."

"I used to feel so old," Pansy sighed, pressing her perfect lips together.

"And now?"

"Now I feel like I'm thirteen and tired from spinning and kissing lipstick marks onto your face, and kissing them off again."

"You're eighteen years old." And so was I, I realised with surprise.

"Eighteen years old and a life to live. Free from the lies our parents told us. Yours and mine."

She sighed again, and the light of the fire turned her hair chocolate. She cleared her throat and turned to me, all perfect hair and lipstick and blood red nails.

"Ginny gave that to me, to us."

"Not all of it," I disagreed.

"Not all of it. But some. You will forgive her?"

"I suppose. What else is there to do. I can't loose her." The words were truer than I'd thought.

"No, you can't." She rose gracefully, with a grace that Ginny could never have managed, the grace that only girls like Pansy and Daphne have, but those that have, have in surplus. "Goodnight Malfoy."

"Night Parkinson."

When Ginny eventually returned, I was waiting for her, the most nervous I had ever been in my life. That's more nervous than waiting to hear if my father was going to azkaban, more jittery than getting my OWL results. Frankly it was embarrassing for someone like me to be reduced to this. I'd spent a lot sitting in the common room, weighing up my options. Pansy was right, I couldn't loose Ginny. I cared about her far too much. More than Eliza, more than almost anything. She had penetrated my life so completely, so well, saturated every part of my being so well that I couldn't imagine life without her. And I didn't want to. But I'd also hurt her. Although I couldn't precisely regret my involvement with Eliza, I lamented the fact that Ginny had found out. I know that's Slytherin of me, but I can't help it. It's who I am. And the fact that Ginny was hurting was hurting me too. My worst fear was that she wouldn't return, that she'd get her belongings while I was at lessons and then disappear from my life. I was at the point when leaving my room to prowl the halls in search of her, curfew be damned, started to seem a really good idea, when there was a soft noise in the hallway outside,and then the door creaked open.

I considered jumping up to the table, pretending to be doing homework, grabbing a book, looking out of the window, or even acting as though I were asleep, but in my indecision, the door opened slowly and Ginny stepped in. The light was still on, and I was shocked to see that her cloak was caked with mud at the back.

"I slipped," she said by way of explanation, seeing my questioning gaze. Her voice was hoarse and her eyes looked red, as though she'd scrubbed them dry. I hated the thought of her harming the delicate skin of her eyelids, the purple, almost translucent shadows that sat below her eyes. I fought back a smile as I pictured her outside running along haphazardly as she always did, falling, and probably sitting, forlornly in the mud. I stopped trying to fight the smile, it wasn't as funny as it had seemed.

Ginny walked across the room, and I followed her with my eyes, while trying to find the words. She went over to the wardrobe, I assumed to change into one of my clean cloaks.

"Ginny, we need to talk," I began, walking over to her and leaning against the bed post, while she took a cloak out and threw it on the bed.

"Do we?" She had that hard voice, the cynical one that I hated, bitter and mocking.

"Yes, about the letters, and about Eliza." Two things that sounded so innocent. Ginny took out another cloak. I noticed that it wasn't mine, neither of them were. I frowned, but continued. "You shouldn't have kept the letters from me, that was a betrayal of trust."

"Of course it was," she met my eyes for the first time. "I want you to know that that's now what I was doing here. I mean, I didn't manipulate you all to get at your father." I blinked.

"Of course not, I didn't think..." the idea had honestly never crossed my mind, which was scary because I was a Slytherin, and a Malfoy at that. Ginny looked at me for a moment, then nodded, apparently satisfied, and continued taking clothes out of the wardrobe.

"But I understand your anger at my father, it makes sense and I can hardly berate you for it. What he did to you...it was unforgivable. As for Eliza, it's true that you and I aren't involved, I was really within my rights to- Ginny, are you listening?" Instead of listening to me, Ginny had thrown even more clothes onto the bed, and was rummaging around at the back of the wardrobe, I couldn't even see her face, never mind tell if she was paying attention. She ignored my question and carried on doing whatever she was doing. Irritated, I moved towards her, and gently pulled her out of the wardrobe, so she stood in front of the dresser.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" I asked, holding on to her arms, she blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

"I'm looking for my trunk."

"It's under the bed," I pointed out.

"Right, the bed," she said, wriggling out of my grip and bending down to find the trunk. I pulled her back up again.

"Seriously, what are you doing?"

"Getting my trunk."

"I can see that, why?"

"I thought you were supposed to be clever, Malfoy."

"It's Draco, as you well know," I said through gritted teeth. It didn't help that she was looking particularly beautiful, vivacious, fiery. If only she wasn't scowling.

"Whatever. I'm packing."

The galleon dropped.

"You're leaving?" I asked in a low, disbelieving voice.

"Yup," she popped the word and moved back to the bed, taking advantage of my shock to pull her trunk out from under the bed and open it.

"What, so that's it?" I said, once I'd recovered. Ginny was throwing clothes into the trunk haphazardly. "You're just leaving."

"Just leaving," she moved to the drawers and opened them, throwing t-shirts into the trunk.

"Just like that?" I stared as she continued packing.

"Just like that." I wanted her to look at me, I wanted to meet her eyes, but she avoided my gaze. I couldn't get my head around it

"After everything, you and me, you're just going to leave?"

Ginny whipped around, her hair flying, dropping whatever item of clothing she was holding, she stalked towards me, and Salazar help me, I was actually scared. She jabbed her forefinger into my chest, expression furious and eyes burning.

"You. Do. Not. Get. To. Blame. Me," she said, emphasising each word with a jab, before turning and pacing to the other side of the room. "You are the one who kissed Eliza. The betrayal of trust, keeping your letters, which FYI, are under my matress, that we could have got over. But you kissed Eliza! Do you even understand how that makes me feel? You have a girl living with you, a girl you KNOW likes you, a girl that half the school thinks you're dating and you actually go and kiss a different girl! I mean, I can see what you like about Eliza, she's pretty, smart, funny. Better than me, right? I mean, screwed up little Ginny, probably crazy, a bagful of issues thanks to Tom Riddle Junior, and six over protective brothers. Just good for a laugh, a few months, just like all the other girls, except you don't even see me like that, I'm not even-"

I didn't want to hear a second more of that, and didn't hesitate before cutting her off with a kiss, pushing her backwards until she was pressed against the bed post which was probably uncomfortable but I somehow couldn't bring myself to care. And gods, she was delicious. My hands wound into their hair, but weren't content to stay and kept slipping down to cup her face and tilt her chin, changing the angle of the kiss. She smelt of mint, and Ginny, and made this beautiful mewling sound sound every time I pulled away. I vaguely could decipher that her kissing technique wasn't particularly skilled, something that pleased me, because it meant she hadn't been kissing anyone else, but in general, my mind misted over and all I could think was don't stop.

When we broke apart it was to a tiny distance, and I didn't move my hands from her face. I noted with some satisfaction that her arms were tightly wrapped around me, and even more smugly that she was breathing heavily in an attempt to get her breath back.

"You're not leaving, we're dating, and I like you," I said quietly. "Okay?"

"Okay," Ginny whispered, a shy smile gracing her features, that I liked so much I had to kiss it until we were both breathless again.

"You know," I said conversationally. "Most of that stuff you said didn't make sense."

"Could that have anything to do with the fact that I'm insane?" Ginny queried?

"Pansy swears you have an inner logic."

"And what do you think?"

I leant down to whisper in her ear.

"I think sanity is overrated."

* * *

The end! I hope you like it. Please review. If there's anything you think needs to be resolved, let me know and I'll put it in the epilogue. If there's loads, I'll put it in a sequel. Thanks so much to everyone who is reading, to all the gals who pm me at eleven oclock to have a good old gossip about Harry Potter fics, followed by a good old chat about nothing in particular.

And what about Dumbledore and Grindlewald EH? I'm cool with it, so long as no one starts referring to it as D/G. That pairing is TAKEN.

Laters guys!


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